I can't believe how these parents are spoiling their daughter. For one thing if she is so busy with school and "cheerleading" that she can't have a job, make her quit the cheerleading. That isn't a necessity. There is also no real good reason for a 15 year old to have as high heels as she had on. A nice dress flat would have been more appropriate for her age. Also why did she need a new outfit to appear on the show? I'm sure 99% of America hasn't seen anything in her closet. I grew up in a poor farm family and I started teaching myself to sew when I was 8 years old, making doll clothes. By the time I was teen ager I had started making a lot of my clothes. The first items that I made were plain skirts gathered onto a waistband. I had lots of them, then I moved up to simple dresses. I was lucky I had an aunt and uncle who didn't have any kids, who was a really good sewer and a grandmother who lived in a little larger town who would shop garage sales in the ritzy neighbor hoods, therefore the four kids in my family were better dressed than a lot of the other low income people in the area. That is even how I got my formal. Some of our clothes were even made out of the bags that chicken feed came in. Whenever we would need to buy the special feed, my mother wouldn't just let the person at the hatchery load it into the car trunk, she would go inside and look at the different prints and pick out enough of one kind that would be needed to make a dress or a skirt, etc. Sometimes the employee would have to move several bags to get what she wanted.
My two daughters even grew up with mostly homemade clothes. When they were little I even made their coats out of old adult coats. We weren't that extremely hard up, it was just the economical thing to do. The only thing they didn't get homemade was jeans. A person can even make t-shirts and sweatshirts and decorate them---granted they won't have a designer logo on them-----but who really wants to have somebody else's name on their clothes? I even made my daughter's formals. I have made clothes for my grandchildren, but have quit doing that.
Other than what I have made for my grandchildren, they rarely get brand new clothing. Most of it is thrift store(not consignment) stores. Consignment stuff is more expensive than thrift stores. Also they shop a lot of rummage sales. When they do get something brand new, it is from WalMart, not the mall. They also don't get their nails professionally done, unless they happen to have some of their own money, the same applies to hair dos. My grandkids, two boys and two girls, range in age from 12-22 and believe me, when you get kids the size of three of them, it is hard to find bargain clothes. The oldest boy is 22 and is developmentally disabled. He is 6'8" with a 32 inch waist and 40 inch inseamI help buy his clothes, because of the cost.) Then there is a 20 year old girl who is 6', a 17 year old girl that is normal sized, and the 12 year old boy is 6 ft. and wears a mens XL shirt and size 12 shoes. I don't know what his inseam is but apparently it must be fairly short because when jeans fit his waist they are too long. These kids are all in one family. They all know how to decide if things are too expensive. Not one of them has their car yet.. That is something else that kids don't need as soon as they turn 16.
One of my adult daughters is mentally handicapped and lives with me, she is even aware of what things cost. When we are shopping she will notice if something has went up in price and tell me. Saturday when we were getting grocieries she noticed that her favorite cookies had went up in price from .88 cents to $1.36 and she said "rats! that means we can't get any." I told her to go ahead and put a package the shopping cart.
Little Miss Katie that was on the show just plain needs an attitude adjustment. Why take her to the mall shopping? I'm sure there must be other stores in the area. Malls have some of the most expensive shopping in our area, and then the downtown stores. But heck! you can hit WalMart, Shopko, Kmart, Target. If you don't tell people where you got the clothes they won't know. That is unless you insist on wearing some designers name on your chest. When it comes right down to it her parents need an attitude adjustment too.
(Original Air Date: 03/27/09) The current economic crisis has everyone on edge. It’s more important than ever to talk to your kids about money, and today, Dr. Phil gives you the tools you need to have that conversation. His first guests, Lora and Kris, say they want help because their 15-year-old daughter, Katy, loves to shop –- with their money –- and she doesn’t take care of the items she buys. She’s already on her second iPhone, second iPod and third laptop! Katy admits she’s a little spoiled but says every teenager wants nice things. Lora and Kris admit they have a hard time telling their daughter no. How will Katy do when asked to balance the family budget? Then, Dr. Phil leads a roundtable discussion about money with a group of fourth and fifth graders. Find out their reactions when they learn how many bags of groceries you could buy with the amount of money it costs for an iPod. Plus, financial expert Susan Beacham shares the dos and don’ts for teaching kids about money. Talk about the show here.
