Poor unfortunate souls

I was going to make this rant a side note on my last post about Christian radio stations but it ended up being too long. It is almost more disturbing than the profanities.

Anyway, as I was driving Craig to school, the morning segment people are talking about how certain kids sports clubs and activities are getting really expensive. And then one of the guys says that he heard of a case where a family had to tell their child that he couldn't participate in something because it was too much money, to which the other announcer said, "Isn't that so sad and unfortunate, that a child can't do what he wants because the family can't fit it in their budget."

Uhm, let me think...No! There are a lot of sad and unfortunate things in the world, but somehow a parent telling a child that she can't take horse back riding lessons or that he has to settle for local little league instead of the elite traveling team doesn't strike me as one of them. That isn't sad - that is life.

The same people who think that is sad are the people who probably bought a house with a bigger mortgage than they could afford because it would be sad for their children to have to share a room. So the kids grown up having never learned that "no, I can't afford it" is a legimate statement and the parents blame the credit card company when their 19 year old has thousands of dollars in credit card debt.

No matter how much money you make, there will always be things you can't afford. There is nothing tragic about that. What ever happened to training you child to be a good steward or to thank God for His blessings? Seems to me this family was taking the right approach, teaching by example how to live within your means but somehow these Christians announcers have fallen for the view that you get your joy from things of the world, because if you don't have those things, that is a reason for you to be sad. Now that is sad.