The Economy and Children

This has been a hard week. A handful of people we care about lost jobs due to the economy and we are all feeling pretty awful right now.

Our own finances are a little tighter and I'm angry at myself for even feeling the little bit of self-pity that comes with that. I realize that in terms of the World, we are still RICH, as are all of the people I know who whine about money.

I read Mimmy and Sophie to the kids after lunch and we talked about "the Depression" and why Mimmy and Sophie couldn't afford a vacation. The beauty of children is that a picnic on the Brooklyn Bridge (they live in Brooklyn) becomes their "vacation" and they think it is fabulous. And my children both thought that a picnic on a bridge (ok, Ben specified the Brooklyn Bridge) would be the coolest thing ever.

I tried to explain a little why I don't want them whining in the store about wanting things and why cultivating gratefulness is so very important. I know it all went right over their heads and I'm not sure if they believed me when I told them their great-grandma lived in a tent in the snow during one winter during the depression and lived on wild plums to eat. But even if they didn't understand, the telling was good for me. Because the obesity of what we think we need is getting to me. I want to be grateful. And never covet more.