[Ufi]

With the economy being what it is and knowing that I'm feeling a sense of food insecurity because of it, I figured it was time for me to buckle down and get smart about my finances. I started reading "The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom," as I recalled hearing good things about the book, and I just got to the part about remembering a childhood experience associated with money. I'm now so upset that I'm sick to my stomach, and I'm developing a headache.

When I was in the second grade, we had a school assembly with a magician. Every child was supposed to bring a quarter to cover the cost. My mom wouldn't give me a quarter but said I would have to earn it by doing something I really hated doing. I don't remember what it was, just that I really didn't like doing it. I think it might have been extra dish washing, as I had trouble getting things clean and she would always check them and make me rewash the ones that weren't completely clean. I'd never seen a magician and wasn't really sure what one was, so I decided to not do the whatever and just not go. Anyway, when the day of the assembly came, all of the students filed out of class, and I told the teacher that I didn't have a quarter and wasn't going. The teacher said I couldn't sit in the classroom by myself and that it would be OK if I went and stood by her. It was, of course, a magical event. I even gathered up some of the "magic sand" left on the stage afterward and took it home, where my mom asked me about it and I told her I'd been allowed to go to the assembly. She made me do the whatever and then take a quarter to the teacher in front of the class and tell her it was wrong of me to go to the assembly without paying and that I was now paying. I was so humiliated.

I'd forgotten all about this. I have carted the little bottle of "magic sand" around with me 30 years, remembering it was from a magician show in school I enjoyed, but I forgot the circumstances around it.

[cbmare]

Awwww. What a bitter sweet story. Do you realize that if you do some heinous crime, you can use this story as a defense? (just kidding)

[JRockSoldier]

That is such an interesting story

[ddc]

Sorry to hear that the memory is making you sick, but I think your mom was trying to teach you a lesson about earning money and paying your own way.

I heard a mom the other day saying that her daughter couldn't play on the church basketball team because she hadn't saved up her money to pay the $70 fee. At first I thought that was kind of cruel, but I can see the mom's point, too. If you want to do something, you have to save the money to do it.

Dave Ramsey has some good advice about money. Check out his books (they're probably at your local library) : Financial Peace, and The Total Money Makeover.

Take care and best wishes on your journey to financial freedom