Watching "Downsized" and am amazed

silverbackMP · #1 12/04/10, 07:12 PM

So, I'm watching Downsized on TLC (?). The family is trying pay for summer activities for the kids.

What the heck? When I was ten, I was mowing yards, paying for my own clothes (for the most part), etc etc.

$200.00 for summer baseball? Get a job a pay for it!!!

reneeearle · #2 12/04/10, 07:20 PM

the first time that I saw it they said they spent $15,000 a month. I only make $25,000 a year!!!

NickieL · #3 12/04/10, 07:23 PM

Holy smokes. 15,000? I think I spend that in a year LOL

mightybooboo · #4 12/04/10, 07:24 PM

No,come where I live and have Parks and Rec give free ADULT softball that you get to pay for on your property tax bill.

They got it wrong,make your neighbors pay for it,dummies!

City Bound · #5 12/04/10, 08:06 PM

Yeah, that show is nuts. They are spoiled people, but they seem to be decent. The guy made a million and a half a year with his contract business and they live in Arizona that was having a building boom.

What bothers me is that people like them, when they have money, raise the material expectations of the status que. Now you have working class people thinking that they are intitled to live like millionares, just because the standard of livign has been so grossly perverted.

City Bound · #6 12/04/10, 08:08 PM

I worked when I was seven pulling weeds serving drinks, putting on puppet shows. I got a job delivering medicine for a phamacy when I was nine and a paper route when I was ten. The only problem was that i never saved any of it.

The kids in that show are ok, they did work and try to make money. I think if they had to they would work more. the parents are spoiling them

sssarawolf · #7 12/04/10, 08:39 PM

If you are poor there isn't any summer baseball, camps etc etc.
At 12 I mowed lawns and and was a part time maid at a motel on weekends. I put clothes on lay away so I could have new clothes or I wouldn't have any.
My mom was single and worked her patooty off so we would have a roof over our heads and food on the table.
I have been cooking since I was 9 years old and that's also when I started to babysit. At 10 I babysat 4 kids regularly and cleaned their house.

Wildwood Flower · #8 12/04/10, 09:39 PM

I am fascinated by "Downsized". They seem like really nice people. But one thing that struck me is the cost of all the activities for the kids. Since when do you have to buy a ticket to go to Prom?

And does Cheerleading really cost $145./month? What is it? A special class? Surely it's not a school activity.

Did I just not hear the whole thing about the boys playing ball and having to pay so much money? Was it a special camp?

I think lots and lots of families are going through what these people are. I don't think it's at all BAD. We have become so spoiled in this country.

Callieslamb · #9 12/04/10, 09:56 PM

It's hard for kids those ages to find jobs now. People hire lawn services, not kids - and in this economy, I bet even lawn services are going to start hurting. It's even hard for teens to get jobs with so many adults out of work. My older kids worked starting at age 14, but that's not allowed - they have to be 16 at most places, 18 at others. Mine also worked their way through college. But my youngest son will have a much tougher time. He's raising calves for his spending money. It's the best I could come up with to teach that work ethic and show him where money really comes from. We paid $80 for a week of tennis last summer. We won't repeat that - 25 kids, 1 instructor.....thankfully, DS isn't that interested in sports.

JanS · #10 12/04/10, 09:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wildwood Flower

Since when do you have to buy a ticket to go to Prom?

Food, DJ, site rental if it's not held at the school, custodian if it is, decorations, favors, programs, flowers or other little gifts for the court....

NickieL · #11 12/04/10, 10:02 PM

I thought everyone had to buy prom tickets

JanS · #12 12/04/10, 10:07 PM

I imagine some schools cover a lot of the cost with fundraising. At our school we have both fundraising and high ticket prices. LOL I have the yearbook order form sitting here, it's $59.99 now, $69.99 after the 15th.

PhilJohnson · #13 12/04/10, 10:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by reneeearle

the first time that I saw it they said they spent $15,000 a month. I only make $25,000 a year!!!

I don't even make 15,000 a year.

JanS · #14 12/04/10, 10:39 PM

I could spend $15,000 a month if I bought a car every month.

**clovis** · #15 12/05/10, 12:52 AM

I haven't seen the show, but have a thought or two.

When I was a kid, Little League cost my folks $7, I think.

Today, with my DD, in elementary school, not a week goes by that we don't get a flyer advertising to let your kid participate in a sport or activity.

Some of the stuff is just sickening. A half-day cheer leading camp, for less than 3 hours, costs $45, plus another $16 if you want to buy your kid the t-shirt. This camp was for third graders!!!! The traveling girls softball was $115, but parents are expected to stay overnight in hotels if they have an away game just one hour's drive from our house. In essence, the sign up cost of $115 plus uniform and shoes isn't too bad, but the commitment to spend $100 a night at least six times for six games...no way.

So, we opted to sign her up for a church soccer camp. They jacked up the price, again. That program was started out to be an outreach ministry and is now becoming a profit center.

What ever happened to kids in a team t-shirt and cut off shorts, just knocking a ball around, just for fun, that doesn't cost an arm and a leg????

I know these prices are nothing. I have a friend who pays $2000 a year so his kid can be on a travel team, and the boy is just 10 years old!

City Bound · #16 12/05/10, 06:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by clovis

I haven't seen the show, but have a thought or two.

When I was a kid, Little League cost my folks $7, I think.

Today, with my DD, in elementary school, not a week goes by that we don't get a flyer advertising to let your kid participate in a sport or activity.

Some of the stuff is just sickening. A half-day cheer leading camp, for less than 3 hours, costs $45, plus another $16 if you want to buy your kid the t-shirt. This camp was for third graders!!!! The traveling girls softball was $115, but parents are expected to stay overnight in hotels if they have an away game just one hour's drive from our house. In essence, the sign up cost of $115 plus uniform and shoes isn't too bad, but the commitment to spend $100 a night at least six times for six games...no way.

So, we opted to sign her up for a church soccer camp. They jacked up the price, again. That program was started out to be an outreach ministry and is now becoming a profit center.

What ever happened to kids in a team t-shirt and cut off shorts, just knocking a ball around, just for fun, that doesn't cost an arm and a leg????

I know these prices are nothing. I have a friend who pays $2000 a year so his kid can be on a travel team, and the boy is just 10 years old!

Whatever happened to cut off shorts? I still wear them and make them, but the younger generation has no idea what they are.

When I was a kid almost everyone had the same rythm, buy new clothes in fall for school, wear them all school year, turn those clothes into summer clothes by cutting them, wear them all summer, wear them out, turn them into rags for the house, then buy new clothes in the fall.

Most people just went bare foot all summer, no one cared. BArefoot, flipflops, or decks.

City Bound · #17 12/05/10, 06:41 AM

Whatever the rich do, they rest of society copies. That is the way it is is , was and will always be. When it was a sign of wealth to have a fireplace, poorer people wanted fireplaces, if they couldnt afford one, they would make fake fire places with light bulbs in them, when the rich had crystal chandaliers, the other classes made ones of glass and plastic.

When the rich made mansions, the middle class invented mini mc mansions in the suburbs and now the working class want those houses also. When the middle class sent their kids to camps, baseball leagues, cheerleading, and karate, the working class and poor tried to copy them.

Look at fasion, who set most of the fasion trends, hollywood and the rich. How many women do you see who try to dress just like paris hilton or some other rich person? Women are walking around with knock-off prada and gucci purses simpley because the rich use those bags and they are a symbol of power.

Wildwood Flower · #18 12/05/10, 06:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by clovis

I haven't seen the show, but have a thought or two.

When I was a kid, Little League cost my folks $7, I think.

Today, with my DD, in elementary school, not a week goes by that we don't get a flyer advertising to let your kid participate in a sport or activity.

Some of the stuff is just sickening. A half-day cheer leading camp, for less than 3 hours, costs $45, plus another $16 if you want to buy your kid the t-shirt. This camp was for third graders!!!! The traveling girls softball was $115, but parents are expected to stay overnight in hotels if they have an away game just one hour's drive from our house. In essence, the sign up cost of $115 plus uniform and shoes isn't too bad, but the commitment to spend $100 a night at least six times for six games...no way.

So, we opted to sign her up for a church soccer camp. They jacked up the price, again. That program was started out to be an outreach ministry and is now becoming a profit center.

What ever happened to kids in a team t-shirt and cut off shorts, just knocking a ball around, just for fun, that doesn't cost an arm and a leg????

I know these prices are nothing. I have a friend who pays $2000 a year so his kid can be on a travel team, and the boy is just 10 years old!

Okay....just what I was getting at. When we were kids my brothers played little league baseball--I know it didn't cost anything because we wouldn't have been able to afford it. They all were champion athletes in track, football, etc. There again, if it cost anything they wouldn't have been able to afford it.

My own kids were the same---they joined everything in school. For away games we often gave them $5 or $10 for their food. That was it. And my daughter was also a cheer leader. They had uniforms that were passed on to the next one.

And prom? Prom was a big deal to decorate the gym with crepe paper and balloons or other clever made-up themes. They brought refreshments and played tapes for the music. They went down to the local cafe for their "date". The boy bought the girl a corsage. We did shop for a dress & the boys rented a tuxedo. I helped plenty of girls find a hand-me-down dress or they exchanged with other girls year to year. And it was fun for them and didn't break the bank.

Something is seriously amiss in our society these days when you have to be independently wealthy in order to play sports or go to the Jr/Sr Prom.

PhilJohnson · #19 12/05/10, 08:37 AM

Well you all could live where I live and have everything free. I would rather see people pay for sports than have multimillion dollar gyms built with an indoor track, indoor pool, amongst other things. It amazes me how much money my school district blows through. This is a rural school district that has maybe 700 kids total K-12. I pay 500 bucks a year on a place valued at 28k. My taxes used to be a grand till I contested it. The various sports programs have turned into huge money wasters.

robinthegeek · #20 12/05/10, 09:55 AM

I've been watching the show too, what annoys me is how they all have cell phones! When my husband and I decided it was time to get out of debt, they were one of the first things to go. I understand the husband is a contractor, so okay. But all of those kids do not need cell phones.