http://practicaldad.com/index.php/site/index/ en don@practicaldad.com Copyright 2012 2012-05-15T04:54:58+00:00 http://practicaldad.com/index.php/article/dad_why_are_you_so_cranky_tonight/ http://practicaldad.com/index.php/article/dad_why_are_you_so_cranky_tonight/#When:04:54:58Z   My better half is out of town for several days and I'm keeping things together as usual.  It's infinitely easier now than when the kids were little, but the question from the two older kids tonight was the same:  why are you so cranky tonight? A friend with older kids once commented that the pressure of raising kids is still there as they age, but it's different and she was correct.  Young children will wear you out with the constant physical demands of feeding, changing, washing and everything else that goes with small ones; even when there might be no physical demands, they want something akin to the fictitious mouse of Laura Numeroff's excellent children's story, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.  I should be grateful now because we had an operative curse in the household for years as anytime that my wife departed on a business trip, one or more of the kids fell ill.  After it happened twice, I palpably dreaded these trips because they could be - and were - met by episodes of pneumonia, bilateral ear infections and intestinal viruses.  Some people have animals that can portend a departure by seeing an open suitcase on a bed, but we had latent viruses that perked up when the luggage came up from the basement. I'm now past the point of changing blown out diapers and having to spoon-feed the kids but in a sense, they're still intensely demanding with their short attention spans and raging egocentrism.  If they want something to drink, they can get it but there's no guarantee that the glassware will make it back to the kitchen.  Towels will be used and dropped where they are and if a teen doesn't like the answer to his question, the ensuing conversation can become rancorous and potentially end in a raging indictment of my personal sense of honor, fairness and a general condemnation of the useless values engendered by western civilization.  Where one indicts openly, another can respond with sullen silence and pointed use of the dreaded death glare, hoping, like Big Bang Theory's Sheldon Cooper, to telepathically instigate a minor stroke for nixing plans with the peers.  When there are children of different genders, school levels and personalities, the increased stress is more exponential than arithmetic as you bounce along from one pin to another. Despite it all, I should be grateful because the Eldest leaves in the Fall for college and when she's out, her presence - and death glare - will be sorely missed.  Perhaps it will be hardest on my wife however, as she'll be left to swim in a pool of 'tween-age and teen-age testosterone.  In the moment however, the gratitude will have to wait until each is abed and quiet, adult rationality returns to the household. Communication 2012-05-15T04:54:58+00:00 http://practicaldad.com/index.php/article/practicaldad_price_index_food_prices_accelerating/ http://practicaldad.com/index.php/article/practicaldad_price_index_food_prices_accelerating/#When:02:29:48Z   One of the infuriating aspects of the US Government's CPI is that they use it for the basis for determining other things, such as benefit levels, while maintaining that food really isn't a core component.  While this price index began in November 2010, I began in March 2012 to also calculate the index to show the activity of food prices within the marketbasket exclusive of non-food items (aluminum foil and Dial soap, for instance). The additional calculation revealed that when non-food items are stripped away, food prices are accelerating at a greater pace; their activity is masked by the generally flat price activity of the non-food components.  Consequently, the February 2012 results showed that the cost of the original marketbasket had increased 4.9% (from 11/10's 100 to 2/12's 104.90) but the pricing of the food items alone had actually increased by 7.67% (from a food-only basis of 100 in 11/10 to a like basis of 107.67 in 2/12).  The results of the May 2012 pricing to three unrelated grocery stores shows that the overall index again increased to 106.49, which matches the previous high of 106.49 in December 2011; this indicates that the actual cost of the 47 item marketbasket rose 6.49% in that 18 month period.  When food items alone are considered and evaluated on that basis, the food-only index comes in at 109.65 so that the prices of the food items alone have risen by 9.65% in that 18 month period.  Notable points: Stealth inflation struck again with a grocery chain now selling sugar in 4 pound bags instead of 5 pound bags.  As per procedure, I am recalculating the product to the original size to maintain consistency.  At some point, expect one or more of the other chains to do the same and the price of sugar to rise accordingly. Of the 47 items in the marketbasket, 13 had price increases while 7 declined in price.  The largest increase was the price of a pound of roaster chicken, which rose 13.4% from April. Comparison of Regular and Food-only Indices at three month intervals Month            Regular Index            Food-only Index 11/10              100                             100 2/11                100.63                        100.46 5/11                102.08                        103.76 8/11                104.85                        106.52 11/11              105.56                        106.38 2/12                104.90                        107.67 5/12                106.49                        109.65   Economics 2012-05-15T02:29:48+00:00 http://practicaldad.com/index.php/article/scrapbooking/ http://practicaldad.com/index.php/article/scrapbooking/#When:19:27:57Z In the past, the mother has historically been the parent who looks inward to the family while the father has looked outwards.  It's been Mom who's taken the lead in taking the household and turning it into what the family comes to call home, but that's changing as more fathers return home.  I frankly thought that I'd taken on pretty much everything that mothers have until several weeks ago when a project that required a number of family photos through the years raised it's head, and my only thought was oh crap.  Multiple projects through the years - science fairs and scouts for example - have led me to craft stores and I've always walked past the scrapbooking section with a cursory glance.  Yeah, my thinking went, that's just lovely but it's something that mebbe I'll worry about later.  Unfortunately, there was a parental project for graduating high school seniors and the need for the photos made me realize that later is now.  The result was a scramble through boxes of old photos and the wholesale reloading of camera cards onto my laptop in a search for meaningful and good photos of Eldest through the years.  As the project continued, it became apparent that we also had rolls of old 35 mm film in multiple drawers and while it was too late to use them - meaning that Eldest's 'tween years are missing from the project - the first of them were dispatched to a local camera store for developing. My wife originally had a plan for all of these photos and started more than 15 years ago to try to create a photographic history of the kids' lives with the intent of giving each a significant album when they reached adulthood.  It was a wonderful thought and she kept at it for the first three years of Eldest's life but the arrival of Middle - let alone Youngest - to the family meant that the project was relegated to the various drawers throughout the basement.  To be honest, it was something that I found cute but not terribly important as the kids grew and activities took over but now I've come to realize that the albums truly do have significance for them.  Eldest knows about the project and was annoyed to find that I refused to show her; other parents have commented that the projects that are being done for their own kids are among the highlights of that particular evening for them.  It's now apparent that I badly underestimated the value of the albums and memorykeepers.  The kids want, especially as they move into the world, to have a sense of who they are and where they're from and making the effort to provide something can only be of benefit to them.  While I believe that men can do most of what women can in the home, I doubt that most of us have the female sense of taste and that's certainly true in my own situation.  However, I'll make what was once referred to as a rum go of it in the attempt to provide a scrapbook that isn't a (s)crapbook.   Family Management 2012-05-09T19:27:57+00:00 http://practicaldad.com/index.php/article/rock_paper_scissors/ http://practicaldad.com/index.php/article/rock_paper_scissors/#When:11:48:40Z It's been joked about on Big Bang Theory and parodied with ESPN style "World Championships", but there's something still very cool about the classic kid's game of Rock, Paper, Scissors.  In an often messy adult world where people can't settle their differences, it's a refreshing reminder that disputes can be resolved in a painless fashion.  Such was the lesson taught by Youngest's recent Science Fair project. Last week was Youngest's Science elementary school Science Fair and he and one of his buddies opted to do a project together, with the initial concept involving "something about momentum".  Knowing Youngest's proclivities, I suspected that it didn't involve toy cars or tennis balls and after the two of them spoke with my wife - the Science Fair Queen - it narrowed down to examining the effect of drag upon a moving object.  The final project entailed a comparison of the average running time of a Razor scooter compared with the same scooter bearing a 2' x 4' plywood board tied to the front run on the same downhill course.  Since the experiment required that the rider be the same for all of the trials - and it involved wearing a motorcycle helmet - the final question came down to who would ride the scooter down the course.  As I sat at my desk eavesdropping on the conversation, an acceptable and useful habit, the boys decided to resolve the dispute with Rock, Paper, Scissors and when I simultaneously heard Youngest call out Crap! while his buddy cheered, I knew the question had been decided.  The project came off well but what was refreshing was the willingness of the boys to abide by the game's outcome; there was no rancor and no pissiness about unfairness and I can only wish that most of the adults in this world had the same attitude. The game has a place in our relationship, a practice that occurs while waiting for shopping females, a bus or simply killing time.  I can still take the boy in most physical activities, but he's been consistently able through the years to beat me in prolonged game sessions and it was only this weekend, after a sixty round session that he explained his strategy for beating me and most others that he plays.  The key is that he's got a strategy while the rest of us - kids and adults alike - are simply throwing out hand gestures in the hope of winning a particular round.  His practice occurs when he loses a round and the opponent throws out the next gesture; he expects that the person will throw the same gesture with the thought that if a gesture won before, it should hopefully win again.  He responds with the gesture that can best it and more often than not, he wins that round.  Sometimes, the person even tries that gesture again and he'll make a call on whether he thinks that his opponent would be the type to try that.  Over a game with multiple rounds, he'll statistically take the majority from the opponent.  After he explained himself, I simply sat and stared at this ten year-old and wondered at how his mind works. There's another point to be made however, and it goes beyond a seemingly mindless, pointless game.  Take the time to engage the kids in these activities, while waiting at the mall or under a basketball hoop and you'll be surprised at what you might learn.  It might simply pertain to a new favorite flavor of ice cream but again, it might offer a potent insight into the child's life.  When I find that Youngest is starting to play the teen version - Rock, Paper, Scissors, Balls - then I'll know that he's arrived at the onset of male puberty.     Communication 2012-05-07T11:48:40+00:00 http://practicaldad.com/index.php/article/a_fathers_wonder/ http://practicaldad.com/index.php/article/a_fathers_wonder/#When:02:53:46Z Childhood is a time of wonder, but that childhood doesn't have to be your own.  Fathers also have a sense of wonderment as they look at their children. We wonder how many diapers we'll have to change before our precious is finally potty-trained (for the record, I've done rough calculations and I've legitimately changed more than 10000 of 'em). We wonder how our mates can be so involved in pre-baby planning items that leave us slackjawed and glassy-eyed. We wonder how much stuff can fit in one small diaper. We wonder how many times Junior can watch the same episode of Spongebob and still laugh. We wonder how often we can seek out the source of a noise without having a minor stroke. We wonder if there's truth to the old saying that God protects small children, drunks and the United States. We wonder if we can again figure out, let alone explain, the math that's being presented to us for help by our children (I signed off on Eldest's homework when she hit 10th grade). We wonder how much food one boy can possibly eat in the course of a day, and we marvel at how sparse is the refrigerator at our own elderly parents house (assuming that income isn't forcing them to choose between food and medicine). We wonder about the source of these gifts that each child has (I was a lousy athlete and musician, unlike my own three). We wonder, as we look at our babies, what they'll look like at different ages and as adults (if you have an infant, make yourself a promise to purposefully look again at their sixteenth and eighteenth birthdays). We wonder, as we look at our children, on their sixteenth and eighteenth birthdays, where the time went. We wonder...         Commentary 2012-04-29T02:53:46+00:00 http://practicaldad.com/index.php/article/a_pox_on_the_college_graduates/ http://practicaldad.com/index.php/article/a_pox_on_the_college_graduates/#When:13:02:33Z I wish somebody had told me I couldn't get a job with a degree in Western Civ.                    - Travis, American expatriate tour guide in Rome, 2011 A recent article on poor employment prospects of young college graduates in USA Today demonstrates the miserable situation in which the kids are finding themselves.  Fully 53% of the college graduates under 25 are either unemployed or underemployed and there are now more job prospects for retail than engineering and with the majority of graduates laboring under some degree of student debt, people are finally realizing the systemic pox that has been placed upon their house. This isn't the first time that the prospects have been dim for college graduates.  I graduated college in the early '80s and had a drawer full of rejection letters in a fruitless quest for employment; my first real job - which permitted me the financial independence to set up my own household - didn't come along for more than another year.  But, apart from a starry dream to begin mining asteroids, does our economy have the potential to create sustainable job prospects for all of these youngsters?  With children growing and already aware that some form of higher education is important for their long-term prospects, what should I keep in mind? First, that kids will receive all manner of commentary and advice from the surrounding media - usually with a pricetag attached - so it's important for me to keep talking.  The italicized comment was made to us by a young American expatriate working in Rome as a tour guide; he'd graduated from a California university about four years ago with a BA degree in Western Civilization and was unemployed here in the states.  He showed considerable courage and creativity by taking his show on the road to what he termed the cradle of western civilization and was building a life for himself.  It's possible that his parents did tell him about the immediate employability of a Western Civ degree and he was too stubborn or zoned out to pay attention to it but I've seen multiple cases first hand in which the parents are saying nothing on the premise that the kid has reached adulthood and has to make his own decisions now.  The kid might now be an adult and responsible for her own decisions, but it's still imperative that I at least provide some commentary so that it's an informed decision and fully in her best interest. Second, understand that what works for one child might not work for another.  Eldest's strengths lend themselves to the academic route and there's enough scholarship - with savings - to get her through without debt.  Middle has a radically different toolbox and isn't equipped for that route, so perhaps the advice offered by economist Richard Freeman, If you're not sure what you're going to be doing, it probably bodes well to take some job, if you can get one, and get a sense first of what you want from college.  It's several more years until he's faced with the decision, but the route that he takes might not be the one taken by his sister. Third, if there is a need to use debt to finance college, be sure that you're part of the process and walk through the payment obligations with your kid.  As mindful of the college debt as I am, I try to remember that debt is as much of a tool as a hammer or a screwdriver.  One of the non-systemic issues is that with many people, they treat it as the only tool in the box so that they're hammering when they should be trying a screwdriver instead.  If it truly takes some debt, then at least walk through the repayment obligations so that there's an understanding of what the future bill is going to be. Fourth, reinforce the lesson that the present system isn't truly built to service humanity but the other way around.  You truly need an education and we'll help you get it!  Don't worry, your job prospects will increase and it won't be a problem to repay it... The old axiom applies:  if you're sitting at the table and don't know who the sucker is, it's you.  If this were a truly cyclical situation, then my response to Eldest would be to hunker down and it will work out in the end.  But I believe, as do many others, that this isn't the typical job cycle and it's incumbent upon my wife and I to pay close attention to her college choices so that she doesn't wind up an expatriate in Rome or drilling for ores on some asteroid.      College 2012-04-25T13:02:33+00:00 http://practicaldad.com/index.php/article/the_band_elwood_the_band/ http://practicaldad.com/index.php/article/the_band_elwood_the_band/#When:20:24:22Z   The band, Elwood, the band!                   - Jake Blues, the Blues Brothers Children are not little adults, but as they become adults, they'll find their own interests and tastes.  If my job is to support them - whether financially, logistically, emotionally and morally - then that means that I'm going to become familiar with topics and activities with which I'm familiar.  We fathers will be forced outside of our comfort zones as fathers who played baseball purchase The Idiot's Guide to Soccer and hunters become conversant with music and theatre.  In my own case, Middle's sudden entry into the world of garage bands means that I'm so far out of my own zone that I need a compass and Sherpa guide to find my way back.  What are some things that I've had to learn in this situation? The first thing that I've had to realize is that a garage band involves not only the household, it involves the entire neighborhood.  Even with the garage door down, amps and speakers are loud enough that the sound is only muted as it rolls down the street.  Even at the outset, when we imposed curfews on practice times to spare neighbors with small children, the comments were such that we moved the band into the basement.  I was surprised that the boys actually listened as the situation developed and while the location is less than perfect for them, they're just happy to have a regular place to practice. What can be done to minimize the damage to the ears of practicing in an enclosed area?  Early rock-and-rollers are notoriously deaf and it's our desire to see that this doesn't happen here, so finding earplugs are a necessity; stressing that they be worn - which Middle hasn't opposed thankfully - is also incumbent.  Fortunately, I haven't had to threaten to interrupt practice to perform ear inspections to assure that they're being worn. What is the language being used?  Lyrics can be famously profane and it's been made clear from one infraction that cursing won't be allowed.  I'm fortunate in that their preference is punk and not "screamo", in which case I couldn't tell the difference between the Catholic liturgy and a string of Howard Stern's rants; to date, there's only been one instance of having to say something for inappropriate language.  How are the logistics being handled, especially in terms of moving equipment?  None of these kids have licenses and if there are gigs - and there are two already lined up - then the odds are that one or more of the fathers are going to add roadie to our job responsibilities.  Even if the equipment isn't being moved, then how are kids getting home and are any of them staying for dinner?  Teens are notoriously horrendous planners and it's reached the point that if I know that there's going to be a practice, then I'm simply cooking for the band as well as the family.  These are the days that work best for crockpot meals. When the kids "plan" these sessions, are they on days when there's a certifiable adult in the household?  We've been adamant that either my wife or I be present and when Middle protested vigorously, quoting the teen battle cry of what could go wrong? I responded that with the presence of several teenage boys, I could return home to find a smoking crater where our house used to be. These are only the first of the lessons that will arise from this new endeavor.  As one father commented to me last weekend, wait until they start bickering.       Family Management 2012-04-07T20:24:22+00:00 http://practicaldad.com/index.php/article/stealth_inflation_continues/ http://practicaldad.com/index.php/article/stealth_inflation_continues/#When:17:44:01Z Recent grocery trips continue to demonstrate how the purchasing power of the middle class is eaten away as prices remain constant while packaging changes. My wife came home recently with a full grocery load and commented that she'd felt taken since the spaghetti that she'd bought on sale was actually now packaged in a 12 ounce box instead of the standard 16 ounce container.  The grocer and producer ostensibly held the sale to camoflage the price increase; most people don't take the time to record prices and wouldn't catch on that such a product change had been made.  The effect is that someone can look at something and swear that they'd paid less for it before, but couldn't certify that that was indeed the case.  A similar comment was made this week as brand name mayonnaise was purchased on sale with the subsequent realization that product came in a 30 ounce jar instead of the previous 32 ounce jar.  The sense now is that when we see products sold at strong sale prices, there's a decent likelihood that the product will undergo a size decrease.  Another factor that impacts the price is the quality and availability of the component ingredients, such as the "pink slime" that's been added for years to ground meat.  With the recent controversy about the quality and safety of the meat byproduct, more grocers are announcing that they'll no longer be including the substance in their ground beef product.  The same week that Supervalu and Safeway announced that they'd no longer include the byproduct, two regional chains that service our area also announced that their ground beef wouldn't have the filler.  Note that these two chains are part of the three store price index that I've followed since November 2010.  A month prior to the announcement, in February 2012, these two stores showed significant increases in the price of their 80% lean ground beef and the local store didn't have the 80% lean for sale at all.  The new, higher price is still in effect - duh - but the local store still doesn't have the 80% lean on the shelf.  The upshot is that another of the factors is the value upon which we place the quality of our food.  If we truly want safe food, then there's going to be a premium that will have to be paid to ensure that the food is safe for consumption. Economics 2012-04-07T17:44:01+00:00 http://practicaldad.com/index.php/article/practicaldad_on_staying_for_the_practice/ http://practicaldad.com/index.php/article/practicaldad_on_staying_for_the_practice/#When:02:27:45Z You're pressed for time and the kid has a sports practice.  That's at least an hour or more that you can use to run an errand or go home and clean up the kitchen, assuming that the practice is nearby.  Do you stay for the practice or do you leave the kid there and get the other stuff done?  What could go wrong?  That's the question that I asked myself tonight and about a minute before I was going to leave to handle another item, Youngest caught a pitched baseball in his windpipe, providing me with about five solid seconds of pure terror as he struggled to regain his breath.  After a few minutes of gasping and gagging, he was able to return to the catcher's position and finished the practice there and upon returning home, Mom the physician administered ibuprofen to control any swelling and had him on the sofa with ice on his throat for a full half-hour. What could go wrong? We want our kids to try different things and find something that they love, something that helps them to thrive and grow.  If the activity is a sport, then we outfit them with the necessary gear and haul them to the practices and games; we cheer for them or coach them, all the while understanding that a sport has some inherent risk of injury.  For many sports, it's likely to involve bruises from incidental contact or some muscle injury and that's simply a part of life.  Our household has witnessed balls to the face, significant bruising and more than one trip to the orthopedist for serious sprains and torn knee cartilage.  These however, are injuries that aren't potentially life-threatening and when the kids are older at least, can be handled by the coach.  My choice - backed by my history - is to stay for the practices whenever possible and I'll work the schedule accordingly to make it happen.  This night was one of the few that I figured would be okay to be gone.  So what have I considered and learned since the throat incident? What's the level of play for the sport in question and how old are the kids?  At the rec league level, the coaches are all volunteers whose own kids are involved in the sport.  While coaches, they have a parent's perspective but are responsible for the entire group in addition to their own.  A child who's suffered an injury is usually different from a teenager since there's likely to be a strong emotional overlay caused by fear and that can fully engage an adult's attention.  Toss in a serious injury and the rest of the kids on the team are liable to require greater attention as well and you can say goodbye to any actual practice.  If you're at a scholastic level, then the kids are under the care of the school, which has protocols for injury.  At the scholastic level, the practices will be likely held at a time where you're still at work.  Additionally, the kids are old enough that there's sufficient maturity and experience to carry them through the initial situation without your presence. What are the precise equipment needs?  After two years of request, we permitted the grandparents to purchase catcher's equipment for Youngest and that equipment came in a single set.  I failed first in not knowing specifically what baseball catchers required for safety and secondly, in assuming that the set included everything necessary for the youngster.  At a certain level of play, boys do require a cup and athletic supporter but I didn't realize that there was a throat guard for baseball catchers.  Do I actually have my cell phone in the event that I have to leave and something goes wrong?  If I have to leave one of my kids at a practice and in the care of the coach, it's my responsibility to at least be accessible. Do my kids actually know any of the other parents there?  It'll be easier for the hurt child if at least there's another adult face that they know apart from the coach. Tonight's incident was a dodged bullet, and the bullet was a potential hollow-point for what might have happened.  The throat guard's purchase will be an immediate fix, but I'll think even harder next time I'm in the position of having to decide whether to miss a practice.     Child Safety 2012-04-03T02:27:45+00:00 http://practicaldad.com/index.php/article/managing_the_credit_cards/ http://practicaldad.com/index.php/article/managing_the_credit_cards/#When:11:45:26Z With Eldest leaving for college inside of six months, the nascent-adult mail has started to flow and one of the pieces to her the other day was a credit card application from First Financial Bank USA.  The bank is a credit card provider that specializes in credit for college students and touts itself as a leading quality provider of credit for new credit users.  Inside the envelope was a letter to the kids, a separate note to parents and a sticker sheet showing all of the options available to personalize the front of the student's new card and the obvious message is that it's a great time to get your first credit card so that you can learn to manage credit and build your infant credit history. But is it really a great time to do that? What bothers me about the continued marketing of credit to our young people is that it's a recipe for life in an economy requiring a completely different mindset than before.  You need to understand something about the credit explosion of the past sixty years - it lubricated and accelerated the shift in our economy from an industrial spending base to a consumer spending base.  At the end of the Second World War, government and business leaders were at a crossroads and knew that signficant changes had to be made in the economic drivers.  From the Industrial Revolution until the Great Depression, economic growth had been predicated upon capital investment spending by business as the country grew and was developed.  That spending utterly collapsed in the Depression and despite the best efforts by FDR to get liquidity into the system via government spending, a traumatized American consumer literally threw the money into the mattress as protection for any further problems.  At the end of WWII, the public debt was stretched by payment for the war effort and the government wasn't seen as a viable alternative for economic growth and all eyes turned to the American Consumer to lead the way out.  The birth of the modern credit card - Diner's Club - led to a realization that available consumer credit was a great way for the average American to lever his growing income into spending that could reshape the economy.  The fact that the US government allowed individuals to deduct their credit card interest from their income taxes until the mid 1980s was proof positive that consumer credit was a policy tool to push spending.  But we're now at the point at which families not only have to delever - pay off the debts - but learn to live within their means and relearn that they themselves are the ones responsible for their own retirement and future; this is all within the framework of lessened income growth. I'll admit that the marketing to college students, the majority of whom now have their own credit cards, is better than it was. Prior to the passage of the CARD (Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure) Act of 2009, card issuers enticed students to their cards with such freebies as mugs, frisbees and t-shirts and the kids lapped it up; it was only after they began to receive the bills that they realized what they were in for. Colleges that permit marketing to students on campus are obligated to certain requirements and the shiny bangles that captured the attention of the previous generation of students are now gone. The CARD Act of 2009 went some way to cleaning up certain wild-west aspects of the retail credit industry. On the offering side, it did end the superficial bangle show that captured the fancy of many young adults. On the billing side, it also mandated that bills sent to cardholders show such things as the length of time required to pay off the amount owed if only the minimum amount was paid. This particular aspect alone was eye-opening for new users as they realized that making only the monthly minimum was a long-term financial hemorrhage. One of the lines sold to the American consumer is that credit is simply another form of liquidity and that if you don't have the money now, just use the plastic and pay it off later.  The problem is that the liquidity isn't yours but someone else's and that someone will demand repayment.  This is particularly hazy to the youngsters who haven't the experience to fully comprehend this and are generally flush with the new-found personal and financial freedom that comes with college. In the case of the offer to Eldest, the only thing that we had to do was show her the APR of 29% and she immediately blanched.  It wasn't necessary to show her the misleading commentary nor take her to cardoffers.com, a website that offers side-by-side comparisons of the various cards available as well as cardholder comments critiquing their card.  In the case of First Financial Bank USA, there were more than 130 comments and the majority were strongly negative.  When it finally becomes time for Eldest to consider a card, then we'll go to that site and parse through the card language to better understand the product.  For now however, she's best served going through at least part of college without a credit card.  She'll be forced to manage her cash and even learn to do without and if she's pressed, her mother and I are only a phone call away.  Family / Personal Economics 2012-03-29T11:45:26+00:00 best price for generic viagra buy viagra on internet Cialis usa cialis discount cialis no rx cialis non prescription cialis now cialis once daily cialis online without prescription