With some of my late mother's savings, I opened an account for my little daughter and bought stocks. Having passed a year, we went to the bank and surprise! She had earned a lot of money! First things: (a) she changed the gold ring with a small diamond I bought her to one with a big yellow stone, (b) she visited Kever Benjamin's most famous nail artist and had her nails painted (about five times), (c) fancy boots, (d) strong perfume, (e) a present for me (book by Paul Auster). At least one of my daughters knows how to live and is not an obsessive overachiever! I am happy. In yiddisch:Naches!
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Teenagers
With some of my late mother's savings, I opened an account for my little daughter and bought stocks. Having passed a year, we went to the bank and surprise! She had earned a lot of money! First things: (a) she changed the gold ring with a small diamond I bought her to one with a big yellow stone, (b) she visited Kever Benjamin's most famous nail artist and had her nails painted (about five times), (c) fancy boots, (d) strong perfume, (e) a present for me (book by Paul Auster). At least one of my daughters knows how to live and is not an obsessive overachiever! I am happy. In yiddisch:Naches!
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6 comments:
I got a laugh out of that because I expected you to say just the opposite.
I am getting softer as age advances. Your perspective changes.
May you continue to shep naches from your shayne maidl. I hope she finds a wealthy husband to support her in the manner to which she is accustomed.
Children are always costly, one way or another. My daughter, who must be about the same age, is not very interested in clothes, jewelry, etc. Instead she loves to fly to fencing tournaments that are held all over the country. Tomorrow she is off to Dallas. In a country the size of the US the tournaments are sometimes thousands of miles away and the airfare is not cheap. Plus fencing lessons, fencing equipment, etc. My friend says not to complain - his daughter rides/jumps horses and that is 10 times as expensive.
K
Be happy to be able to finance your daughter's fencing mishigene.I could imagine a hundred worse ways of spending money. She could be into yachting or free-fall parachuting.
For the record: Just a moment the girl came back from her volunating in the old age home (she makes company to an ancient survivor) and brought me a congratulation letter from the school for her achievements. She is not entirely free from acing in exams. She isnot free from her Kievan mother's stressing influence.
Personally I had zero (negative if such a thing is possible) athletic talent and my wife did too and it never occurred to us that any child of ours could be involved in athletics in a semi-serious way (my son followed the family pattern also). With my shtetl Jewish mentality I never saw any benefit from athletics - Jews should sit and learn, if not the holy books then the other kind (math books, etc.) I always dismissed the "well rounded" idea as nonsense - an excuse for excluding Jews (it was used this way in college admissions in America once upon a time). But I am a believer now - being involved in a competitive sport has made my daughter a better scholar and a better person - not just physically fit but mentally tougher, more competitive, more goal oriented, etc. She is a different person than she would have been if all she did after school was play video games.
There is a small possibility that her athletic performance will increase her chances of admission to a top college (the very top US universities reject 90+ % of all applicants). If an athletic coach indicates that he wants a certain athlete the admissions office will usually go along . Other than that there is very little material benefit to be gained - there is no $ in fencing - it remains a true amateur sport. Nevertheless I think it was worth it for the reasons above.
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