If you’ve ever been to a Disney theme park you’ve probably seen them. People with notebooks busting at the seams with pins, wheeling and dealing with other vacationers as well as Disney cast members. These notebooks are often filled with hundreds of pins valued at thousands of dollars, and some of them have duffel bags full O_o. A lot of these people are children and I fucking hate seeing it. Not because I don’t like to see kids having fun but because I hate that parents are raising their children to be so obsessive over something. That’s just not the kind of lesson you should be teaching your child.
I hate to bring reality TV into this mix, but if you’ve ever watched the show Hoarders, you’ll know where I’m about to go with this. Obsessively collecting something can easily become a disease that ends up taking over all aspects of your life. Generally speaking, hoarders have something they collect, whether it’s horse figurines, salt and pepper shakers or suitcases, it’s always the same outcome. Their obsession figuratively (and I assume literally from time to time) buries them alive. Often times their life savings is wrapped up in their obsession, they are living in squalor, and for some reason there are parents out there bestowing this obsessive behavior on their children?
I’d like to think that the parents that are teaching their kids this obsessive trait are also teaching their kids how to value money. I hope for everyone’s sake that these parents are making their kids earn that money that they are so mindlessly blowing on that treasured trinket they have to have so many of. I hope they are teaching them to save some of that money instead of spending it all as soon as they get it. I hope they are being taught these things else we’re going to perpetuate the problem with adults not being responsible with their money and then seeking the help of others (and usually the Government) to bail them out, usually to continue making the same mistakes because they never learned otherweise. But let’s be honest, most of them are probably not teaching their children these things.
Don’t get me wrong, children don’t need an 8-month emergency fund, but they do need to have a vehicle and knowledge to save money, and they need it sooner than later. As a parent it’s your perrogative if you want to save money for your child’s future, but it’s your responsibility to your child and society that you teach your child to be responsible with money. We all know it doesn’t grow on trees, so why throw it away on an elaborate collection that’s absolutely worthless to anyone but yourself? (and other “collectors”, if you want to get technical). Take the time to teach your children about money and how to save it, because a closet full of Beanie Babies is the wrong way to save.
