Limiter 5.17.05

Today—before I addressed the strange odor by showering—I was watching the Larry Elder show to get myself all incensed. He was lamer than usual but Dr. Phil gave some advice during a commercial break—kind of a One to Grow On, if you remember those.

The good not-quite-doctor tells us that parents should not talk about their money issues/ woes, for the children will then take on some of the emotional responsibility, some of the stress, and then worry about asking about the $10 they need for a class trip.

That’s crap advice. Shouldn’t children of a certain age—let’s say by 10 or so—have a sense of what their financial limits are? Instead of asking why they can’t get some toy? Shouldn’t they learn how to be more efficient? I didn’t need the Trapper Keeper with the Hulk on the cover when a sturdier folder with a metal binder would do; it helped to have a sense of where my dad’s money was going; and to better understand that I couldn’t have every GI Joe. Granted, there was the GI Joe theft incident… but I was a juvenile so you didn’t hear it from me.

The good not-quite-doctor did not specify ages, but the children displayed in the commercial were in the 10-15 range and on some no-curb Florida street. And by that age, kids should know a little bit about their parents’ limits, instead of becoming bitter that they can’t have so and so from MTV and this and that from the mall. We all have limits that define our personal responsibility. It’s better to understand that the parents can’t afford it versus the parents are mean hoarding miserly bastards.