Cowboy Caleb the liberal arts, grown-up stuff & random mischief

5 Ways To Help Your Parents During The Bad Economy

After the massive response to my previous post “How To Decide What To Do With Your Life, And Do It” in the form of comments and email, I realize that quite a number of my readers are on the fringes of adulthood from middle-class families.

The same middle-class families that are going to be hit the worst during the current economic recession.

Today, I would like to show how you can help your parents during the current recession although you’re just a student with no income.

1. Excel at something
   It can be your studies, sports or some other activity. There’s nothing better than coming home from your soul-crushing job that pays peanuts to wonderful news that this kid you produced from your own very loins has managed to win an award, or scored straight A’s.
2. Stay out of trouble
   Drink but don’t get drunk. Don’t touch drugs. Don’t mix with the wrong crowd. Don’t get pregnant. Be the silver lining in the dark cloud of stress and unhappiness that is your parent’s life. When everything is wrong, your parents should be able to turn to you and remind themselves that at least they did one thing right.
3. Do Housework
   You’ll never know how much parents appreciate this gesture. But even better, if you do the housework, they won’t need to which means they’ll have more time to relax when they come home from work.
4. Work Part-time
   Get a part-time job. But make sure it doesn’t intefere with your grades. Give at least 70% of the money to your parents and let them know you expect them to pay the utility bills with it. The remaining 30% should be your own allowance, so you won’t need to get any from them.
5. Be Positive
   Many parents come home and take out their frustrations on their kids. When your parents say something negative, respond with something positive (eg. You think money grows on trees? No, so I’m studying hard to make sure I can give you a better life in the future). Adults can be worse than kids. It’s your job to remind them to be adults.

Please share if you practice(d) what you preach :D

well, I stopped being a kid a dreadfully long time ago…

I like point 2 and am working on number 5 heh :)

lol easier said than done if you want to score straight As… the other things are hard to achieve…

plus to score straight As you need tuition. tuition = $$$

lol