So with the current economic forecast turning a bit southwards, at least for a bit, how to explain to the kiddos that the salad days of yesteryear may be turning into the boiled cabbage years of tomorrow?

Never fear, I’ve got some tips.

1. When your child whines about not being able to buy the latest incarnation of the iPhone, threaten to get the old telegraph out of the attic.  Assure them that the information transfer is practically as fast.  And yes, they can text in Morse Code.

2.  Learn the 1,001 ways to make a meal out of ground beef and/or ground turkey.

3.  Garage sales and flea markets are great family fun! Especially when you’re the one making the profit!

4. When holes appear in their jeans (and holes are no longer fashionable) tell them chirpily, “Patches are the new black!”

5.  Have your kids set up a lemonade stand with wildly inflated prices. Because no one can resist the lure of cute kids selling lemonade. And hey, every little bit counts.

6.  Don’t call them “hand me downs.” They are vintage.

7. Enhance your children’s math and reading skills at the same time by having them look for and cut out coupons and then calculate the savings.  The family that saves together stays together!

8.  Invest in some cardboard boxes.  Everyone knows that kids would much rather play in the boxes than with the actual toy.  So why not just cut out the middle man?

9.  If your child is so inclined, encourage them to learn a trade.  Because not everyone needs a stockbroker, but everybody needs a plumber!

10.  With the collapse of the United States financial system, it might be a good idea to enroll your child in foreign language classes.  Chinese, perhaps?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 at 7:35 am by Glinda and is filed under Big Bad Business, Bring It, What to do. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.