Why should I support someone else?

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-27-2006
Why should I support someone else?
4426
Sat, 12-30-2006 - 1:24pm

Let me start by saying that I"m new here so this may have already been discussed, but this has come up in my office several times and I wanted to get some other views of this.

I do payroll for a rather small company so I know most of the workers and their wives (most of the workers are men due to the nature of our business). There are two in particular who's wives SAH. These two are up to their eyeballs in debt. I have bill collectors constantly calling for them. That part is really their business, it is annoying but I enjoy being rude back to the bill collectors, lol.

The part that bothers me is that both wives have been in the office wanting copies of X amount of check stubs so that they can go and get public assistance (I know because they told me that is what it is for)! Why should my tax money go so that these women can SAH? I know that not all families that one parent stays at home are like this, but I know lots that are. Heck, growing up we were always broke because my mother refused to work, but we weren't on any public assistance.

So, why should I pay for a woman to SAH? Why can't she go and get a job to support her family just like anyone else?

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Pages

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-29-1999
Tue, 01-30-2007 - 12:06am

I shop at thrift stores and am comfortably upper-middle-class. I just don't see the point of dropping a wad on something I can get for next to nothing, esp since DH works so hard for our income. Moreover, the thrill of the hunt is fun. Some of DS's favorite toys have come from garage sale expeditions w/his grandpa, and he's learned quite a bit about money from those expeditions as well.


I don't waste my money on cigarettes and alcohol either. But thrift store shopping? That's just fun. I get oodles of compliments on the headboard I made for our bedroom out of an antique door from the Habitat for Humanity thrift store. I supported a good cause AND got a one-of-kind piece of furniture for a song. Not to mention my Ebay habit. Oh, how I love Ebay. My entire dining room (curtains, tablecloth, slipcovers, chair upholstery) is from Ebay. Not to mention all my slipcovers (I have a slipcover addiction)...


I've also made a great deal of money selling DS's clothes to Once Upon a Child and on Ebay.

Christi babies
iVillage Member
Registered: 12-29-1999
Tue, 01-30-2007 - 12:10am

I hear they get more expensive as they get older...


iVillage Member
Registered: 05-09-2006
Tue, 01-30-2007 - 2:44am
A lot of them are millionaires, if "Millionaire Next Door" is to be believed :)
iVillage Member
Registered: 05-09-2006
Tue, 01-30-2007 - 2:45am

<>

Well. Isn't that special?

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-09-2006
Tue, 01-30-2007 - 2:47am
Oh I think parents are CRAZY not to buy second hand sports gear until their kids are at more advanced levels, and even then it's not an across-the-board thing. A gifted golf playing kid, for example, can be gifted and play with used clubs, but a gifted, elite level skater would clearly need new skates.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Tue, 01-30-2007 - 7:00am

You forgot stereotypes r us. I have found the best deals and best clotes at a $1 a pop at our Congregation's annual rummage sale. I have been known to shop at the occasional thrift store and whom do I see? Many more people like me as well as hard working less affluent people.

Do you ever hand down clothes from one child to the next?

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-28-2007
Tue, 01-30-2007 - 7:36am

It's not a stereotype. Unless you're saying used clothes bought at thrift stores wear as long and can go thru as many washings as new clothes?

That's the reason I don't even do hand-me-downs with my own kids: I only buy what we will use so that after washings and wearings, they are worn out and no longer good by the end of the season.

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-13-2004
Tue, 01-30-2007 - 7:44am

Acutally a gifted golfer needs his own clubs tailored to him. It has a lot to do with height, grip etc...

Karen

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-13-2004
Tue, 01-30-2007 - 7:46am
I tend to buy nicer quality clothes for my 8year old son, like Lands End Coats, becuase I know it will last forever and my six year old son will be able to wear it.
iVillage Member
Registered: 01-15-2006
Tue, 01-30-2007 - 7:53am

bassinets are overrated. lol. i was told by so many friends and family that a bassinet was the thing to have for the first few weeks of a child's life..by the time *new* mom syndrome broke,i packed it up,returned it to my sister and swore i would never need it again.

there was no difference between that bassinet dd1 came home to and the crib dd2 and ds came home to.

 

Pages