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| by Nina Saldana |
Miscellany |
 When the US economy took a really bad turn this year, many are now dreading the onslaught of 2009. Not surprising to think each one of us can already feel the crunch of the crisis. As a parent, my worst fear is to not have enough resources to bring up my daughter -- a sentiment, I am pretty sure, is shared by all the parents all over the world.
I wouldn't say though that feeling the crunch just began the past few months. When I made that difficult decision to go freelance, I knew that the payoff with my daughter was in the financial aspect. For the past years, when she wants me to buy her something, the request always goes this way:
"Mama, when we have extra money, can we buy this?"
There are times when this line pinches my heart. I don't want her to feel deprived in any way. But this is the payoff that I had to accept if it meant me having more time to focus on her especially in her early years. I had to cope with that dilemma if it meant being able to mentor her in her early years in school. This is in the hope that she grows up to be a more EQ-tic over IQ-tic child.
Now, however, I am very thankful that it will not be much of an adjustment for her as this recent crisis looms over us all. It is such a relief that she is you could say a low-maintenance child who loves bread over cakes and other junk foods, water over softdrinks or even juice and household stuff as toys over the expensive ones.
In times of crisis, it helps to have a kid who does not crave for the expensive for nothing hurts us most than seeing our children being deprived of what they want most...or having a hard time coping with changes that we need to impose on them during tough times.
Yet I have realized too that in times of crisis, we parents have the opportunity to teach our kids the more important things in life. Right now we are not just facing a financial crisis. We are also barely coping with environmental concerns and political tug-o-wars. This is the best time to slowly make our children realize the gravity and urgency of facing these problems even at a young age since it will be them who will bear the full impact of the inevitable consequences of all those. It's now or never.
When I was shopping for a gift for my daughter, I wanted one that she can learn from and at the same time easy on the budget. I was cruising through Toy Kingdom (and bruising through their price tags) when I saw a couple of boxes that were shoved carelessly in one corner. It was quite difficult to notice if you are just looking through the shelves. But these boxes caught my eye.
Paper Recycling Mini-Factory
So many things were running through my mind when I saw it. One, will it really work. Beating old paper to the pulp is quite difficult without using a blender. Two, will Reb even appreciate it? Three, how much???
The first question can only be answered when we finally use it. So I just prayed that it will. The second, well, it uses water so she will definitely love this. Plus it means recycling a lot of her old doodle notebooks and coloring books...as well as old newspapers and even used Christmas wrappers. I also think Reb will love writing on paper that she made herself.
As for the third concern...it was only around P500 plus.
On Christmas Day, I found out the answer to the first question. YES. She did enjoy it. We got some hand and arm exercise while tearing old paper into small pieces. Reb got her natural high from stirring the pieces of paper in a bucket full of water. We had more exercise using the paper blender. It was a great experience to go through the whole process. She just can't wait to use the paper she made.
 Throughout the whole experience, the one thing I realized is that during tough times, there will always be a way to enjoy without spending as much...and even learn something in the process. I was telling her why recycling is important as we made our first batch of paper. I told her afterwards that now we don't need to buy expensive paper to make cards. Moreover, we saved some trees from being cut by using used paper to make new ones. We did not even use an electric blender to crush paper to the pulp (no added cost from Meralco).
This is just one simple way of turning a crisis into a learning experience for the kids. When we need to cut costs, it doesn't have to be at the expense of the kids -- meaning they do not need to suffer. But that can only happen if they begin to understand just why things need to change.
At a time when we need to spend less, it may be a good idea to spend more with the kids. That means more time to explain and teach them the value of coping with the ever-changing times in our lives. You may not be able to afford PSPs or Wiiis at this point yet time spent with them just may be less expensive but more rewarding for the whole family.
I hope everyone had a blessed Christmas and will remain prayerful in 2009.
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Non-multiply members may email their comments to an.saldana@gmail.com.
Reposted with permission from Mommy Nina. Originally posted at
When crisis brings out the creativity in parents
 | Nina Saldana is a writer/editor for almost two decades now. Although all her working experience is in business writing, what she really loves to write about is life and people, and everything else in between. She is doing freelance work (writing, editing, web design, among others) to hopefully have more time with her daughter. Email: an.saldana@gmail.com Mobile: +(63-920) 4007045 |
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