Jeff Edelstein: Stop teaching our children to beg for money
I had to run into Walmart to get whatever it is I needed and I was attacked by members of the Hamilton Little Lads baseball league.
OK fine, “attacked” is strong but there were two of them, one on either side of the entrance. Only way to get into Walmart was to Moses-the-Red Sea right between them.
“Would you like to donate to the Hamilton Little Lads?” the little lads said to me, to which I said - honestly - I had no cash on me. Only credit cards.
But even if I had $3 trillion in singles on me, I still would’ve brushed them aside. Why? Because there is zero chance I’m just handing my money over. I mean, at least sell something.
Seriously: What kind of lesson are we teaching kids when we send them out to beg for money? I’ll tell you what the lesson is: “Hey kiddos, if you do nothing people will give you cash.”
It’s a terrible lesson.
What made this even worse was the Walmart I went to was the one on Route 1, which has a Princeton mailing address and is right between Lawrence and West Windsor. And these were Hamilton kids. If we’re going to send our kids out begging, shouldn’t we at least keep them within our own communities?
I really - really - hate this practice. It’s one thing to hold a car wash, to sell cookies, to sell those god-awful popcorn tins and brownie mixes and sweepstakes tickets and whatever else. At least there’s a product or a service being offered. At least there’s some salesmanship and work involved.
But to just have our kids stick their hands out and get money? I mean - how could anyone think this is a good idea? For the record, this is not me turning into Scrooge Curmudgeonly over here; this is just me as a parent, trying to raise my kids to understand the value of both work and a dollar.
Listen, I’ve always subscribed to the “work smart, not hard” school of thought. Believe me, if I thought I could do literally nothing and get paid for it, I would. But that’s not how life works. There are no free rides. You want money, you need to hustle for it. The sooner kids learn that, the better off they’ll be.
Having them beg for handouts is not exactly teaching that lesson.
In fact, it’s really kind of disgusting.
What kind of lesson are we teaching kids when we send them out to beg for money? I’ll tell you what the lesson is: “Hey kiddos, if you do nothing people will give you cash.”