Fear breeds fear…
This whole recession thing is getting on my nerves. Remember the whole Y2K thing? Gloom and doom.
I, being a mother of teenagers am actually seeing a wonderful thing happening with this whole recesssion. I’m not one to buy cell phones for 8 year olds (ridiculous) and our home owns one Playstation 2 with about 8 games. My son plays the guitar, does online graphic work and my daughters ride bikes, draw, write, and read entire series of books.
I recently saw a commercial for Allstate on television and I just had to share it with you. For anyone worrying that this recession will not allow them to supply themselves or their children with the latest i-phone or all the gadgets and add-ons that come with a wii….well, I can’t say that I’m not glad……I am. It’s about time.
Parent’s are spoiling their children beyond belief in this generation. It’s like we are the slaves and we just give the handouts.
Enough is enough. I’m a good mom. I’ve was a single mom for nine years. I know what it’s like to buy shoes at Payless instead of Pacsun. But my son came to me about six months ago and told me that he is glad that we went through a “poor” period in our life. Yes, we were “poor”………Poor as in ‘we got our entertainment center out of someone’s trash.’ We didn’t have cable tv, didn’t buy new clothes whenever we were bored, my girls have never owned a coach purse, but do you know what? We cook together, we’ve gone bikeriding on the beach, we washed clothes downstairs at the laundry together, and we went fishing often.
We aren’t poor anymore….now we are just an average hard working family. I’m remarried and we aren’t struggling as bad anymore. But I still have the same values instilled in me. I still cringe when we dish out over $50 for an oil change that we could have done ourselves, we don’t have a lawn service, and we clean our own house, do our own repairs, and eat home cooked meals often.
There’s something to say about the recession. It seems like it will be a sort of “equalizer”. Maybe some children will see that a new pair of $200 sunglasses is sort of silly for a 17 year old. Or maybe they won’t. I don’t know. But I do know that we needed something to help us have a little bit of appreciation for each other and for the things that we DO have.

Recessions sort of show us what we are made of. When all is well and the economy is pumping along, EVERYONE makes money. During a recession, you only make it when you go the extra mile for people and do your job well. Amazing isn’t it? It’s like the recession is the great weed killer of life….. something to think about.