Wednesday, March 22, 2006

consumerism and new bunk beds

I spent a long day yesterday helping my husband to assemble bunk beds for our two oldest boys. It was one of those kits from Kmart with everything you need laid out nice and simple, but the directions could have been in mandarin chinese for all the help they were. Anyway, I noticed how every single board had a little sticker on it with the number and "Made in Viet Nam" on it. So I'm standing in the kids' room sorrounded by about $2,000 worth of toys that my kids have. Most of them were all bought in the last two years or so, as kids their age tend to cycle through toys pretty quickly. There was enough stuff to fill a land fill in there. At least the boys are grateful, and they do take care of their things. My boys haven't been hit with the worst of consumerism, because we don't get cable or watch regular TV or anything. So I don't have to put up with them begging for toys every five minutes that they see on commercials. But anyway, I'm standing there staring at these stickers thinking that some mal-nourished kid named Yu Phat earned the equivalent of $2.16 spending all day painting the beds for my over-priveledged children. But the worst part is I didn't really mind.

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