A to Z Challenge

A TO Z OF RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Teaching and parenting are both works in progress. Not too many decades ago, grown ups used to tell young people to use their brain whenever they made a mistake. As a parent I did not tell my children that and if I were lucky enough to be a teacher, I would not do that either. Now I know enough to understand that not everyone's brains work the same way. I also know that my own brain may or may not work the way it used to. I do try to avoid using things that are harmful for my brain and try to use the things that are good for my brain. 

In eighth grade resource management class, I raised my hand and said "Blessings" when our teacher asked us to give the name of a resource that is useful for us human beings. The kids in the class laughed. The teacher simply asked another student who raised her hand and I guess that girl gave a right answer. I was too upset to even pay attention to the class as I thought that I was told something wrong by my elders. They always told us to get blessings as they would come in handy when there is struggle in life.  As time passed I understood  that blessings are something you believe in and I also understood that you get back what you give, so therefore our elders were not wrong because we got their blessings whenever we did something good for someone else.

Whether it was the eighth grade resource management class or the section of Economics class of resource management the most important thing we learned is how to balance our resources for a good life in every way possible. They taught us how to balance a budget and a checkbook. They taught us how to divide a job among laborers and they taught us how to divide laborers among managers. However, they did not teach us how to understand that balancing our time and energy between our jobs and loved ones is just as important. Our elders told us that nature has a way of balancing the world and we individuals are a part of nature. To me it sounded so utilitarian. I still think that we can do our own job of learning how to figure out our priorities.
  Books have always been a good resource for me. Not the kind that we read in school, but the kind we read to understand people and their problems. 

A to Z Challenge

A to Z of Resource Management

I was twenty-five and my first born was two years old, when one of our neighbors told me that in the US, people do not ask their children about how they spend their allowance. It was like a sting to my brain, because I remember not only did my mom ask me what we all did with our allowances, she made sure that we used it wisely. This to my neighbor was shocking. She then made a remark that sounded not too far from the truth. She said that she was not surprised that my husband and I were dependent on our parents for every decision we make. It was true that we not only sent money home, we let them know where our money went.  I did not want my children to be like us. I wanted them to have a spine and still be respectful and thoughtful.  I was confused and worried about how I was going to raise my children to be responsible adults. It just turned out that I would go with them to the corner store when they were elementary school age and watch them eagerly take out their money and buy comic books and candy. As they grew older the manner of their spending changed a little bit,  until they brought home the working papers. That was then when I told them that if they drive, they will be responsible for paying for gasoline, the auto insurance and repairs. That was harsh, but they liked to drive. Now they had a purpose for their money.

I still wonder if it was the limited source of money or obedience on our part that made us accountable  for the money we spent. 

People from all over the world have a desire to live in America. They do not realize that in the middle of abundance,  individuals and families alike are feeling the pinch, not so much in the way the money is spent but the way bills have to be paid. Buying things we need or even want sometimes is fine, but to keep buying things so you can have them is not the same as rich people buying properties so they can acquire them. The difference between a rich person of tomorrow and average people like us is that the future rich guy will spend his money in the things that promise him a good yield in his future and we the average people spend as we need to or even on impulse buying because we like what we see.  In the television show "King of Queens" Carrie gets upset when her father-in-law tells Doug (her husband) that Carrie is buying too many clothes, shoes, handbags etc. Later on Carrie thinks about the financial situation her and her husband were in and then realizes that her father-in-law was right and that she should watch her money and not be tempted by things she likes. 

Guest Post

Allison Morris is kind enough to write a guest post for me.

 As much as I am concerned about what my grand children are exposed to on the television I am not able to keep up with what they watch on a daily basis as they live a couple of hours away from us. It is not just the kids I worry about today. Even us grown ups can be vulnerable to the ads on the t.v.

(http://www.educationnews.org/parenting/better-tv-better-kids).

Television has long gotten a bad reputation for corrupting children with images of excessive violence and a barrage of advertisements. But an infographic posted recently by EducationNews.org actually argues that changing the channel may be a better solution than turning the TV off entirely. In fact, appropriate shows aimed at a child's age group can actually help boost vocabulary, problem-solving skills, and reduce behavioral problems.

Still, it is undeniable that there are many negative impacts of children watching too much television. For example, in one year, the average child sees 20,000 commercials, with two-thirds of those featuring unhealthy foods. Consequently, for every hour of television a child watches, they are 18% more likely to eat candy and 16% more likely to eat fast food. In addition, by the time they reach 18, children have witnessed more than 16,000 murders on televisions. Statistics indicate that an extra hour of weeknight viewing increases the likelihood of criminal conviction by age 26 by 30%.

However, kids who watch educational programming actually tend to be better prepared to start school. They are also less aggressive than children who watch other shows. As they get older, those who watched Sesame Street, or other comparable programs, from ages 3 to 5 typically had higher GPAs, read more books, and placed more value on achievement. Boys were also found to remain less aggressive through high school and girls were more likely to participate in extracurricular activities.

For more facts and figures about television habits among today's youth, check out the infographic.

How far?

Early this morning as my husband and I were walking in the mall, I stopped to look in the window of a big name store. He knows that I like to know what is in style and who is wearing what.  He also gives his input about today's fashion know how that he picks up from watching the television. He told me that Kim Basinger's  daughter looks quite mature for her age, although Kim Basinger still looks very young herself. I told him that I am not surprised as I am sure models keep themselves in good health. Then I almost bit my tongue as I remembered my parents telling me that only about five percent of girls who want to be models make it in the profession and the rest struggle hard to even survive, some even compromise their dignity and belief. I even asked my mom about the wrong impression we get from watching the models being admired by the general population and young girls wanting to look like them. She assured me that there was nothing wrong to wear fashionable clothes and to some extent look pleasing to the eyes. That always bothered me. Looking good is one thing but in order to look pleasing to the eyes, how far are we expected to do?
One of my former co-workers who is from Russia says that it is more important for a woman to look nice than for a man. I always told her that it is important that we dress according to the job that we do, no matter who we are. It  was very easy for me to walk and work at my job as a vendor auditor, but in customer service it was just as hard. I also had started resenting what men could get away wearing.
How far have we come as women in work force? It is hard to say without statistics and demographics. All I would like from this world as a woman is for people to look at us women as human beings. I would like men to not be threatened by us if we are more educated than they are nor to look down upon us if we are not. We could be homemakers and take motherhood seriously for sometime and be in a profession in later years or be professional now and be homemakers and mothers in later years.
In the television show "Carrie Dairies" the prequel to the HBO "Sex in the City", the high school junior gives more importance to what she wants to do, then to what her dad wanted her to do. This show takes place in the early eighties. It reminds me of a friend whose daughter sounded very independent. She too was in high school then and said that she will expect her husband to help out in the house as she will have to work.
I was lucky enough not to have educational loans. Today a lot of young women have to pay back their educational loans, so the old theory of our Indian culture that a woman's place is at home will not be practical.
Anna Nicole Smith's life was tragic but her daughter is beautiful. She may be modelling right now, but I hope that she does what she wants to do rather than what the world is expecting her to do. If she models, it should be for herself, if she does not it should be for herself too. I would say the same for the daughter of Cindy Crawford who seems to be pretty level headed..

Only One Day

Americans are very smart. I mean from going into space and inventing Microsoft and Windows to Medical Research and Pharmaceuticals the rest of the world looks up to America. Then how come the two parties cannot come up with an agreement? Is it because the parties are so much against each other that they cannot accept a good solution by the other even if it is a good one? Is it possible that neither of the parties have a good solution? My head starts spinning when I try to figure out what went wrong and when.

I just feel for people who are looking for jobs and are on unemployment benefit. I feel for people who are raising children and I also feel for people who have big mortgages and are expense bound.

In college, in Economics we learned that the sooner we pay off any loan the better because in the long run we save on interest. It is only after coming to the US we were told that paying interest on home mortgage is tax deductible therefore we can buy a home on mortgage and reduce our taxes. However I feel very uncomfortable if I owe any money to anyone therefore I encouraged my husband to pay a little extra on the principle so we can pay off the loan as fast as possible. Our tax preparer told us that that is not a very smart way because we will pay more taxes. I calculated and it turned out that we pay more in interest than in taxes. At least by paying higher taxes we are contributing towards the country budget, by paying interest we are only making the already rich banks richer. We were told time and again that we can enjoy the cash if we take out home equity loans. I rather we save for a vacation than borrow against the roof on our heads.
Another factor that is hurting us whether it is a household or  the entire country is the way we take care of our health. I would pay doctors an extra bonus if majority of his or her patients are in the best possible shape. Companies have started giving bonuses to people who are willing to answer questions about their health and are willing to participate in improving their BMI, their blood pressure, their sugar levels etc. My brother thinks that it is an invasion of privacy, but I think that it encourages people to stay fit.
I think that teaching children to share their toys even clothes and teaching them to save money from early on will keep them from becoming high maintenance and even expense bound when they grow up. I am sure that there are other very simple factors in our lives that can save a family budget an may be in the long run the country as well.
 

Modifications

Our doctor was very much pleased with us.  Although I gained  three pounds in one year and two months my overall health has been quite good. Same for my husband, although he is really overweight for his health our doctors is happy with the fact that since his open heart surgery four years ago there have been no other health problems.  He then said that we must be doing something right. I told him that I have started being careful ever since I lost my health insurance three years ago. He asked me if I could tell him in what sense I have been taking care of myself. I told him point by point about the changes I made in my lifestyle.

When I was working full time, vending machine was my comfort. During breaks and lunches, I would take a bag of chips and a soda to fill up after eating my sandwich. No need for vending machine in a part time job as you go home to homemade foods. If I ever go back to full time I will make sure that I bring a bottle of water from home or even a fruit.

Before my husband's surgery we did not realize the dangers of foods found on the shelves in supermarkets. Now we make sure that no food has hydrogenated fats or trans fats even though we may have to refrigerate them.

My husband used to think that salads and greens were for skinny young girls, but after losing his brother to colon cancer, he is understanding that all of us have to eat vegetables and fruits in order to be fit not just to look good.

I do not reach out for candy when my blood sugar drops I grab a juice box instead.

I refuse to wait for my husband to eat dinner with him if it is past seven o'clock at night, because eating late means hyper-acidity which means my asthma will be aggravated. I had read that in some cases acid from your esophagus can seep into your wind pipe, especially if one is overweight.

I have been very careful about wearing the right clothes for winter instead of caring about looks and  fashion. This could be the reason that I do not catch too many colds. Even if I do, I try to nip the problem in the bud. I still think that I'm lucky that I did not take any antibiotics in four years time. 

Last but not least, I now have Mantras to keep myself from getting my nerves worked up.  And when people tail gate me  during rush hour I try and use whatever I can to make myself laugh such as  a license plate that reads "YOURFACE".

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to my family, my friends, my blogger friends, my neighbors, and my co- workers. 

I do not have any resolutions, just some hopes and prayers.  I hope that everyone stays safe and healthy and  happiness comes to everyone in a breeze. I hope that we do not have to look very far for things that make us happy and I hope that we can share what we have with people who lost everything they had. I also pray that simplicity gives us what we cannot find in abundance. I hope that human beings do not have to go through anymore tests. I hope that children and adults alike understand themselves and find friends whom they can trust and who will trust them. Amen.