IÂ had one of those days yesterday where things just weren’t going my way. I won’t go into the details but needless to say I achieved little and that was interspersed with unwanted interruptions and issues.
Last night I spent so much time trying to sensitively answer the comments to yesterday’s post that I really didn’t have much time to write a post for today. So I am going to share with you all a little story relayed from Cindy (one on my readers) to myself through emails yesterday that warmed my frazzled heart.
She went to Chucky Cheese yesterday with her girls. I have added the link in case people don’t know what Chucky Cheese is but to be brief it is a kids game/restaurant where the kids can play carnival type games and win tickets which they can exchange for prizes. Now Cindy’s girls have been involved in the decluttering process in their home and are really on board with the process. When they had finished playing the games and were ready to cash in their tickets for prizes they both couldn’t find anything they really wanted. When Cindy pointed out that they really didn’t need to bring something home they didn’t want they happily left empty handed.
How proud I would have been if I was their mother. Cindy you are doing a great job of raising those kids, congratulation.
ITEM 190 OF 365 LESS THINGS
Here are some items my darling daughter was willing to part with recently there is more to come on that subject but I will get to that in another post soon
What a great story. My kids want to spend money because they have it. I hope as they grow and learn lessons about value and needs/wants, that they’ll make good choices.
Hi Christy,
like I said to Deb J. I have always tried to lead by example when it came to only buying what you can afford, mending things rather than throwing them away, multipurposing items and not being wasteful. Unfortunately I really think I could have taught them more lessons about being kind to the environment by not creating a supply and demand situation that the planet can’t cope with. If you have young children please teach them this at their level as they grow it is not necessarily something they will pick up form observation.
I say congrats to Cindy for having daughters who are already learning to not take things home just because they are there.
Colleen, hope today was better.
Hi Deb J
Yes, congrats to Cindy for sure. It really helps to involve your children in the process and explain to them the reasons why it is important not to be materialistic. I wish I had been a better teacher of this when my children were younger. I have always tried to demonstate it in my actions but we all go off the rails sometimes.
As for my day, so far so good. Thanks for the good wishes.
Way to go Cindy! If you can get one or more kids to walk out of a Chuck E. Cheese without stuff you are definitely doing something right!
Colleen – to your comment about teaching kids versus observation. Kids do learn by observation, but the problem these days is there is so much to observe and we live in a very self-gratifying, more is better culture. If a 100 million people say more, more, more then mom and dad can’t just hope their kids will just pick up the example of less, less, less. Kids always want to know why, so its our job to explain why less is better for ourselves and our planet. Lead by example and teach the lesson that supports it.
PS – hope its a much better day today. 🙂
Hi Donna,
I whole heartedly agree with your view on teaching kids versus observation which is why I made that comment. You are so right about there being so many other opposing examples out there. One really needs to explain why to a child or they will more often than not simply choose what is most agreeable to them and we all know that is not always wise.
And yes thank you I am having a much better day today. I did get caught in the rain a couple of times when I had to walk 50 minutes to and from the car service centre but the exercise was worth it.
Great story! Now, if only Chucky Cheese would offer them the option of putting the value of their tickets toward some sort of charitable donation, then we’d really see some progress!
Hi Rebecca,
I agree with the donation idea wouldn’t that be great.
I hope your day is better today.
P.S. I think yesterday must have been one of those strange karma days because mine sucked too!
Hurray to Cindy! Good job, Mom!
Hi everyone, this is Cindy, the Mom in the post. Thanks for all your kind words. I didn’t realize how impressed everyone would be, and the best praise was my husband’s agreement that I’ve done a great job with the kids in this area.
Good on you Cindy and your husband should be please and he is a good man for saying so. Good on him too.