crossrhodes

Every couple fights. It’s normal. If you don’t fight, you’re not spending enough time together :) It’s been a while since Don and I fought. This morning, we had a stupid fight about… get this… HOTDOGS!!! That’s right… franks, weiners, hots, whatever! We fought about hotdogs! It was one of those very brief but loud yelling matches, too, with the ferocity and decibel level reserved for the likes of filet mignon or rack of lamb. There is such a thing as a good fight and fair fighting can actually be healthy for a relationship. But today, it was all about the Oscar Myer weiner. No one can top that for the stupidest fight ever!

[Edit] And for that, I get a dozen apologetic roses :)

My BIL has been messing with his blog lately, trying to copy mine. I’ve since reorganized my website, adding more features my blog software can do. Let’s see if he can keep up :)

In a movie we saw the other night, a couple described the dishes on the menu in a fine restaurant. It made my mouth water! I made a comment to Don that the only reason I’d want to be filthy rich is to dine in fine restaurants ALL the time. And James says, “You can do that now. You have a credit card!” He was serious, too!

[Your children are] probably used to seeing you pull out your card to pay, but have they ever looked at the statement’s bottom line or watched you write a check to pay the bill? Concepts like paying with plastic can be abstract without a reality check. - from Consumer-Action.org

James is not alone, yah know. A lot of kids these days think that credit equals free money. And the concept of “buy now, pay later” begins at an early age. James has been wheeling and dealing probably ever since he learned to talk. (His grandparents thought he’d grow up to be a lawyer.) When he wants to buy something at the moment, he’ll negotiate to put it on my card and pay me in cash later. I’ve since learned to ask where his cash is stashed because sometimes its in the mental register in his head. Last spring he wanted a $2,000 saxophone as an advance on his Christmas and birthday gift which are in winter.

I was guilty of the same. When I was single and living in Southern California, I opened a Macy’s credit card to purchase a black spring pea coat which retailed for $100 at that time. I was paying only the minimum on the bills. And then I moved back east and lost track of my mail. When Macy’s finally caught up with me, the $100 pea coat cost me about $400 with interest and fees! Actually, it cost my mom $400 :) She has bailed me out of so many financial holes I’ve dug for myself.

I became wiser about money when I married Don and took over managing our finances. And I’ve decided that its due time we sit down with James to explain the fine print of credit, among other life lessons not taught in home ec or college. I found a few guidelines for talking to kids about personal finance:

• Talking to teens about money
• Teach your teen how to handle credit cards
• Start now to teach pre-college teens good credit management

Statistics say that a teenager is more likely to die in an auto accident than by any other cause. That’s no comfort to us parents who are unprepared to accept the next stage of our child’s life. James started Driver’s Ed this quarter. Pretty soon he will be of legal driving age. I can live with him having a driving permit until he’s 30. He may be old enough to die for his country at 18, old enough to get drunk at 21, but I think the driving age should be raised to 30. Yeah, 30 is a good year. We thought we were mature at 21 but we were really all stupid until 30. Really!

I’m so excited for this stage in James’ life! My sophomore and junior years of high school were so much fun for one reason… the slew of Sweet 16 parties! Some of them were, like, really formal so it was, like, shopping for a prom dress every month coz, like, you didn’t want to be seen, like, wearing the same outfit twice. *LOL*

This evening, James is going to his first of hopefully many Sweet 16 parties. I think he’s afraid he’s going to be the only guy there coz he doesn’t know any other boy in school who received an invitation. I wish he’d take a camera with him to capture these memories for his scrapbook but boys aren’t sentimental that way. (Oh yeah, I also made a quick birthday card for him to take.)

If only he knew how much fun it is to look back at those pictures when he’s older! I dug up a few pics from my own Sweet 16 party (how innocent I looked then!), me inside a Macy’s fitting room shopping for a party dress, and my bestfriend’s Sweet 16 (we were all so close in high school, but now I can’t even remember their names). Brain cells go bye-bye as time flies. Hey, don’t laugh! Everyone who was anyone had sky-scraping hair back then!

[Edit] Much to James’ surprise, there were other boys there! It was so funny… I saw girls arriving in dressed up, clubbing outfits while the guys were all in jeans and varsity jackets :)