It's the American way, or at least the 21st century American way, right? To keep up with the Joneses? (Is that how you spell that?) I've been thinking about this for a while now, and finally am sitting down to post some thoughts on this. IMHO (for my parents, that stands for in my humble opinion), I think our family does a decent job of not getting caught up in trying to keep up with the Joneses (I really hope that's how you spell it, since it appears I'm going to be writing it a lot!). We like the philosophy with regards to money of Dave Ramsey, and try to live within our means, save as much as we can, and don't get into debt, yada, yada, yada.Well, it has occured to me lately that it becomes increasingly difficult to not want to keep up for the sake of your child. Me- I don't care if I don't have designer clothes, a new car, the latest gadget, or whatever. Don't get me wrong, I buy myself my fair share of unneccessary items, but I try to keep it in check. But, I find that for my daughter, I really want her to have it all & have to really do a double check to make sure I'm not buying too much stuff for her. So & so is doing swim
classes.....I immediately think, do I NEED to do them too? Her closet is packed, but I still notice the babies with more expensive clothes that never repeat. In my heart, I know these things don't matter & I hope to be able to instill the values that more stuff doesn't equal happiness. I'm hoping to find some ways this next year to volunteer with her in tote to help ensure some balance in her (our) life, and help us remember how truly blessed we are no matter what we do/don't own. I'll keep you posted (shocking I know!) on what I find for us to start this endeavor.
1 comment:
Oh man, this is so so so true. I really don't care about what I have or don't have (most of the time - I'm not perfect) but it's really hard with the baby. And it's so silly because she doesn't care what she's wearing, so long as she can crawl in it!
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