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“Mommy, what’s Black Friday?” The question came up after a few minutes of having the television on this morning. It is impossible to miss the commercials, even on the radio. After giving her a brief six-year old appropriate answer, she made her mind up that it was something that she wanted to participate in. (Not my intention.) Fortunately, I was on my second cup of coffee, so the “thoughtful parenting” hamster already had the wheel spinning, working on ways of disguising Black Friday.
The question then became, how can I turn Black Friday into an opportunity to support a good cause?
The idea of “Small Business Saturday” is one that I love, supporting local shops that give back to the communities. I’m not completely anti-big box by any means. Where else can my budget buy massive amounts of coffee to run through my veins???? But Black Friday has become competitive, aggressive and sends out the message of “I need NEW! I need MORE!” Yes, the deals can be great, but the message behind the giving is overridden by something a little more dark… somewhat fitting for Black Friday.
My solution:
I presented it to my daughter as something that we can do (one store only, and with a preset amount of money that she can use math to help calculate the total as we go along) under ONE condition… we shop ONLY for items to be donated. Every year, a local organization, Westchester’s Christmas Dinner, plays host to families on Christmas Day, providing a festive feast, entertainment, music, new and gently used clothing… and presents for the children! A brief chat with my girl and we decided that we can get involved on Black Friday by having our dollars spread a little bit further and purchase items to donate. In fact, she LOVED the idea!!!
I will prepare beforehand with some responses if we witness acts of greed or aggressiveness. Unfortunately, we can’t avoid those things in our society, so we might as well try and be prepared when I know the likelihood is high to see that side of people! What tips or advice do YOU have for raising a child to have a giving heart more often than not?
The location that we selected to donate our finds from the First Annual Black Friday Donation Run:
Westchester Christmas Dinner
*Read about our end result here!
