July 4, 2008

How Our Fourth Of July Became a Pain in The Neck


Happy Fourth of July!

Our Fourth of July is definitely not what we had planned. My daughter woke up with an extremely painful sore neck--you know the kind of neck pain you get when you sleep wrong on your neck and it is excruciating to move? Because we have been painting her bedroom, she has been sleeping on the couch the last couple of nights. Unfortunately last night she got into some position where her neck must have been angled wrong, and ouch! this morning she awoke screaming in pain.

So we have been putting icy hot on her neck and gave her some tylenol, and she is now resting more comfortably and watching tv. But it looks like our plans for watching fireworks tonight is out.

My daughter has been begging me to get her a new laptop, and today she tells me that we could just use a credit card to buy one with. Ack. I can see where she gets the idea that credit cards and charging stuff is so easy--the commercials on tv make it look like nothing--order now and just pay later!

I checked out a site online about student credit cards and it really has a lot of articles and information about using credit cards responsibly, how to apply, how to build a good credit history, etc. I let my daughter read some stuff on the site so that hopefully she'll get the message that credit cards are really to be used for emergency type situations, not buying something just because you want it. I get the feeling that she thinks of credit cards as 'free money' somehow; I don't think she gets that a nice little bill comes every month, and you will have to pay back the money you spent and then some.

Anyway, after our discussion, and after she read on the website about credit cards and how you actually pay more back than what you spent in the first place, she seems to have a better understanding of how credit works. I hope so anyway.

So that's about it for our holiday--not an exciting one, but at least we are all together and finding some quality time in just hanging out watching tv and talking.
Funny how plans can change in a blink of an eye. But I am actually enjoying our mellow family day together (of course I wish my daughter felt better though)--who knows what other interesting discussions may come up!

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