Who's Kid is This?!?!

Your walking up the cereal isle at your the grocery store of your choice, minding your own business looking for the Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Quietly you are being a good shopper and seeing just how many pennies an ounce you save on the big box verses the small. It never fails that then, while you are deep in thought, someone stops beside you with the their four year old strapped to the seat of the buggy. It is never just a normal four year old is it? NO, it is always the four year old of terror, with the loudest lungs ever given to a child and he or she is using them in all their glory! "I WANT THE ONE WITH A TOY!!!!!," screams the little ankle biter. You turn and expect to see the mom or dad being the parent they should be and smack the little one and teach them to be respectful, however that's not how it happens is it? Instead mom or dad just does not have the energy in them to give the child what he or she deserves, instead they give them EXACTLY what they do not deserve...the cereal of choice.

They next day you are walking in the Supercenter and you pass the toy isle. In the middle of the floor is little Johnny, lying in the floor, acting like a kid that is well on his way to becoming one of life's greatest screw ups. "I WANT THE GAME!!!," he screams. Dad being the dad he should be (sarcasm) does not want to cause a scene (or doesn't care) and simply gives Johnny the game.

Now as you read this everyone is thinking, "what's this guy's problem" however, everyone also had a memory pop in your mind very clearly of an instance like this. Maybe even your own kid.

This post is not to bash parents or their children. It is to simply make a point. How many of us have found ourselves standing in the DVD section, the new clothes section, the hunting or fishing store, or looking at that beautiful new purse, and all of a sudden the kid we described shows up. No not in person, but inside of us. WE start screaming and pitching a fit in the floor of our mind. We work hard, we watch every penny, and then the nail in the coffin statement, "I deserve this."

Honestly, many of us do work hard, watch every penny and do deserve the item, however we do not deserve the struggle that comes with impulse buys. Impulse purchases are the reason so many of us are so deep in the debt pit. Americans have thousands of dollars in credit card debt and most of us have no idea where from where it came. As we continue this fight to solve the problem of having Too Much Month, this is the single most important area we must over come. We must concur. We must defeat and kill.

I actually get to write this tonight with a touch of pride. Tonight my wife was so excited about getting to get the Black Friday ads and map our where we need to go to purchase gifts. Before we would have just went around blindly spending money on every "good deal." I challenge each of you and myself to gain this discipline. Fight the urge to impulse. Keep the fight to win and never again have Too Much Month!!!