Junction

I don't have kids but my parents had us volunteer. It wasn't to compare homes, but rather the right thing to do. We were taught at a young age to help those less fortunate and to give back.

This is interesting. This was the exact message delivered at church this morning. My kids are 2 and 4. The 4 year old has to recycle toys prior to her birthday/Christmas. She just knows that other kids don't have toys and they'd really appreciate her sharing her toys. I'm trying to instill that more enjoyment/satisfaction comes from giving than getting.

As an adult, I've done a lot of international travel and I feel like it should be mandatory for Americans to see what the rest of the world endures.

A nice exercise to try. This actually worked on me last week.

A family here in Orlando just lost their home in a fire. All people were out, but they lost their pets. All clothing, furniture, dishes, etc were lost.

I got a $100 gift card for something I did at work. I stopped by the school where the mother teaches and gave it to her. (Here's the exercise part) I genuinely asked myself what I could have done with that $100 gift card that I would have felt better about. What could I have bought for $100 that made me feel better than helping this family? I couldn't think of anything.

Maybe the kids to chores around the house to earn $50, then give that money to someone in need and see if they feel the benefits of giving something they've earned.

You know what volunteering I have done that I couldn't stand was at a Salvation Army. I see the same guys come in each Saturday for free food. When discussing the concept of working to earn their food (pick up the trash outside the building, weed the flower beds, do the dishes, anything) I got F*** you. Why would I do work to get things I already get for free? Then I felt like the idiot. They were absolutely right. Why would you ask someone to earn something that's already free?

I decided I'm done trying to help people that have no interest in bettering their situation. I get that there are mental illnesses present etc, but I'd prefer working with people that ambitiously want to change their situation.

I think the biggest thing for kids is to find a way that they enjoy giving back. While you giving that gift card probably made you feel great, if you had young children and told them they had 50 dollars but had to give it to someone else it probably wouldn't have the same effect.

I think younger kids need to see the actual help they're giving someone for it to really sink in, I think for kids under about 10 money is too conceptual a thing. Telling a 9 year old that you gave a 100 dollar gift card to Home Depot to a family doesn't mean as much as showing them whatever that money helped build or fix.

Exactly.