MON€Y
Not your common cold I BY CHANDREA SEREBRO
MY FRIEND GOT A CALL FROM THE SCHOOL TUCK
shop the other day. They wanted to know
if they should extend the R200 credit facility for her child, as it has been exhausted. It’s April. My friend was agog. She
couldn’t imagine what her child (a skinny, non-eater, responsible grade one girl)
could be doing with the tuck shop facility. There isn’t even any junk food at the
tuck shop anyway. So, left with the moral
dilemma of the benefit of the doubt versus that special kind of knowing that
only a parent has when a child is telling
you what you want to hear to save their
skin, she had no choice but to come right
out and ask her. And, with a giggle, the
little girl explained how she buys her
54 JEWISH LIFE
ISSUE 72
friends in her class hot chips once a
week. And boy, she said, do they love it!
My friend did not know how to respond to her child, too young to know
the value of money, but at the age when
she is starting to learn the value o