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The holiday spirit will be different this year
With Halloween past, the official Christmas/Hanukkah season has started. The TV ads are being unveiled. The catalogs are filling the mailbox. The pumpkin pie filling and cranberries are lining grocery store shelves.
But I'm not feeling it. Are you?
Unemployment in Florida is at 11 percent. And I have too many friends and family who fall into that number, or who got pay cuts this year. It's still rough out there.
Many kids have had to deal with the reality of doing with less. A study released earlier this week suggested up to 50 percent of U.S. kids will be on food stamps sometime during their childhood. That's astounding.
For more about the impacts of the recession on kids, read an excerpt from a speech this week by the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget.
We are fortunate to have a two-income household, but my kids know that this has been a tough year for a lot of people. So we are going to really dial it back during the holiday season.
We'll concentrate on giving to others in need, and spending time, rather than money, on friends and family.
Gretchen Day-Bryant has a son in high school and a daughter in middle school. She’s lived to tell about the struggles of juggling little kids and work...
Joy Oglesby has an infant daughter and a sister 13 years her junior, whom she babies to the now-adult...
Cindy Kent Fort Lauderdale mother of three. Her kids span in ages from teenager to 20s...
Rafael Olmeda and his wife welcomed their first son in Feb. 2009, and he's helping raise two teenage stepdaughters...
Lois Solomon lives in Boca Raton with her husband and three daughters...
Anne Vasquez is the Online Editor in charge of overseeing SunSentinel.com. She is the mother of a 5-year-old boy and a newborn daughter.
Georgia East is the parent of a five-year-old girl, who came into the world weighing 1 pound, 13 ounces...
Brittany Wallman is the mother of Creed, 13, and Lily, 6, and is married...
Chris Tiedje is the Social Media Coordinator, and father of two boys and a girl all under the age of seven.
Comments
Considering inner city blacks and white country bumpkin trailer folk have 4 or 5 welfare cases apiece, I don't found it at all surprising that 50% of all kids are or will be on food stamps.
Posted by: JB | November 7, 2009 7:34 AM
Oh please JB. Do you know how many people that I know that are not married that have kids and only claim the womans income so that they can get assitance? One of them's boyfriend is a teacher at a private school and makes a great salary but she works part time so she can get free medical, free college ofr herself, food stamps etc etc reduced childcare the whole shabang....I wouldnt mind if the "inner city blacks" and "trailer folk" were getting it because they actually need it unlike those that ARE abusing it at the expensve of us honest, married folk.
Posted by: Rsamorose | November 9, 2009 12:09 PM
I have read the article based on the Holiday spirit.There are different activities held on the holiday.I agree with that We are fortunate to have a two-income household, but my kids know that this has been a tough year for a lot of people. So we are going to really dial it back during the holiday season.I want to know suggestion from others.
Posted by: weight loss pills | November 9, 2009 11:36 PM
This year, my husband and I decided to volunteer during the Thanksgiving holiday. But it has been nearly impossible to get in touch with organizations to see how we can be of help. I've contacted Salvation Army, the Broward Partnership for the Homeless, the Ronald McDonald House and I still have not heard back from any of them...Does anyone know of any organizations that are looking for volunteers on Thanksgiving?
Posted by: SR | November 10, 2009 9:33 AM