Everybody Loves Your Money

Have you ever thrown up just a little bit in your mouth?  I did today when I watched an episode of “My Super Sweet Sixteen” on MTV.  They should rename this show “How Not to Raise a Child”.

It all started going south for me when the show intro started.  It basically shows a bunch of spoiled little girls posing.  All these girls have one thing in common.  They all have their parents wrapped around their fingers.  Usually it’s the dad.

In this action packed episode, the audience was treated with scenes from the $450 photo shoot for the photos that would later be plastered all over the walls at the party.  I can only imagine how much the clothes for the party cost.  The girl was disgusted at the thought of buying a $275 purse.  Apparently that was too cheap and would scream out “White trash” to anyone that saw her carrying it.  I was particularly disgusted by the pouting and little whining episodes when the party didn’t appear to be going in the right direction.  This girl got surprised with celebrities at her party and the icing on the cake was the brand new BMW 7 series outside that her daddy bought for her.  Total price for the party plus car: $300K.

I don’t care how much money you have.  That’s just absurd.  What are you teaching your child?  This girl thought she was a celebrity and wanted to be treated that way.  To say that this girl was happier than someone from a middle class family would be a mistake.  She just found stress and sorrow in more expensive situations.

I’m just taking a quick break from the buzz on Christmas morning.  My three year old daughter woke up this morning and immediately wanted to check to see if Santa had come to the house.  She screamed with delight when she saw the cookies she had left out for him were gone and only crumbs were left.

Once she got over the excitement that he had come, she immediately went to work.  The first thing she did was unwrap the little gifts in her stocking.  My wife comes from a family that likes to put practical things in the stocking so my daughter found new princess underwear, shampoo, and a couple of “dollar store” presents.  She was definitely most excited about the princess underwear.

After that, she immediately headed for the tree in the front living room.  We had to slow her down a bit so that we could get comfortable and have a cup of tea.  At our house, you can normally see the Christmas tree.  I’ve been to some houses where you can’t see the tree through all of the presents.  We tend to take a lot more conservative approach when it comes to gifts at Christmas.  We spent a moderate amount of money this year.  I’d say we kept it under $300 total for the three of us.  That doesn’t include the $20 gifts that we bought for each of our nephews, but I think it was still pretty reasonable.

My daughter’s favorite gifts were the small portable radio that she can use to play her “princess” cd’s and her Leappad learning game console (50% off at Kohls so it was only $29.99).  I’d say the items that she spent the least amount of time admiring were definitely the clothes. 

Now, we are off to celebrate Christmas with family.

I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year.