Things

Birthday gifts.  Christmas, Anniversary, Valentine’s Day gifts...and we can’t forget the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy.  Is anyone else besides me having trouble buying for people nowadays?  Kids especially, they have everything already.  And my parents, good grief!  If they want something they just buy it, so shopping is that much harder to do.  My biggest nightmare question is when my parents start asking what to get my kids for birthday or Christmas.  They don’t need or want anything.  They already have it!

What happened to saving your allowance to buy the Sweet 16 Barbie that smelled like strawberries or to buy the really cool t-shirt at Spencers?  All three of my kids are different with money.  My daughter used to get $1 allowance per week when she was little.  The first thing she would want to do is run to the Dollar Store and buy plastic fingernails.  I’d sit and meticulously put those on her and they would fall off in 10 minutes tops.  The middle child was pretty thoughtful with his allowance.  He would want to buy something to share with either his siblings or the whole family.  My youngest holds onto his money, I think he could start his own bank. 

As they have grown, gotten jobs, they want for nothing.  Cell phones, lap top computers, game systems.  What happened to calling someone on a land line or playing a game with an actual person.  My daughter started amassing kitchen appliances, tools, gadgets, pots, pans a year before she moved out.  Lest I forget to mention the new bedding, towels, pillows, lamps and furniture she bought herself.  My house was starting to look like a cross between Pier 1 and Williams Sonoma.  Because she kept buying her own things, that left nothing for the rest of us to get her.  The day she moved in, I asked her where her vacuum was.  Oh, I don’t have one.  What??  I picked up my Mother then ran to Target to get her cleaning supplies and toiletries.  I don’t think I have ever seen my Mother so happy to buy someone a vacuum!  Now the question is; does she actually use it?

My middle child has a townhouse apartment across from the campus of his university.  Talk about not needing anything.  He and his roommate are all set up.  His roomie is graduating this December and the lease on the apartment is up in January.  My son is graduating in May so we decided not to renew the lease.  That means Mr is moving home after exams in December and will commute his last semester.  He has three floors of used furniture.  I told him he has to have a tacky tag sale and get rid of things he does not need.  All that crap is not coming in my house.  I just got rid of a department store, I don’t want another coming in! 

My youngest is the one who wants nothing.  When he was seven, we asked him what he wanted for Christmas.  A penny he said.  A penny?  Yeah, I don’t need anything mom, a penny will do.  He has his clothes, phone, lap top and Playstation.  That is all he wants or needs in his life.  I am helping him pack up for school and everything that boy wants to take can fit in one suitcase.  Where did he come from?  He is certainly not like the other two. 

My husband is a big culprit of spending money on himself.  He just bought himself a brand new high end car and pampers that thing like it was alive.  The man also wants for nothing as far as his guitar/music studio is concerned.  There is always new equipment being snuck in down the basement stairs.  And he says I’m bad about spending money! For all you inquiring minds out there, I DO wear all the shoes in my closet and use all the handbags as well!!  Not all at the same time. 

When is this spending going to end?  How long can we sustain this?  Pretty soon everybody is going to have everything, then what?  When I say everybody I mean EVERYBODY.  What is going to happen when there is nothing left to buy?  Hopefully people will start to realize that life isn’t about having things.  I was thinking about going to the mall this afternoon to scope out fall fashions and pop into the craft store to get a few things.  Instead, I am going to spend the afternoon with a friend.  We are going to bring her paintings to a gallery and set them up for a show.  Afterwards, we are going to “the meadow”(what the boys call the river bank) for cocktails while we watch our husbands fly fish on the river.  Next time my parents ask what we need, I think I am going to ask for their time.  Time spent together going over old pictures, time to hear stories about their childhood (who knew Auntie could get a bicycle up a tree?) and time creating new memories.  Because at the end of the day, it’s all we really have.