maid service
I have to tell you this story. I have been volunteering in the schools for several years now, and kids never seem to amaze me. I am always trying to look out for the ones with the bad home situations, or the ones in need of some type of help. I am not well off, but I have always enjoyed doing things to help others. By doing this, however, you must really spot the need, and sometimes the kids can be deceiving. Well, on one particular day about a week before Christmas, I read a group of letters that first grade children have written to Santa up on the classroom wall and I come across a letter that reads like this:
Dear Santa,
I would really like a Barbie and a bike, and I hope you can get them. Mom said we are broke and we won't get anything for Christmas. That would be sad.
Love,
J
So, of course, I read this letter on the wall, and my heart is breaking. What a sad letter from a first grader. Well, I go out of my way to find J to see what type of sad condition she is in. I finally figure out which child this is and I am amazed to find that she is wearing designer clothes, etc. So I start thinking that maybe something has just happened that has caused them financial stress and I go speak to the teacher about it. She proceeds to take a look at the letter which I guess hadn't really caught her eye, and she was astounded. She assured me that this child seems to have all the best things and she goes on to tell a story about the kids in her class.
The one day in class the teacher was talking about messy desks, and she complained about how messy her house was. She said that some of them must have messy rooms that were at least as bad as their desks. One girl raised her hand and said that she didn't have any problems with that because they had a maid service that came in and cleaned for them. The teacher said wow; I wish I had a maid service to help at my house. The surprising part of this story is that the girl with the maid was the same one who wrote the letter.
Sometimes, a child's perception is not a factual one. I am just glad that I found all this out before I went out and bought her Christmas presents. After all, it is not like I can afford a maid!