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| Karma As Co-pilot
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| Added on 05/31/07 by
Betsy
1 comments
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Yesterday's post about the universe using Goodwill and garage sales to offer it's wares came true yet again.
I have been collecting baby crap for a woman who is broke and didn't even have the cash for a car seat. She works at a retirement home full time for seven dollars an hour and has a 2 month old girl.
Two weeks ago a friend of my mothers-Pat-who works at the same retirement home called and asked me to collect stuff for her, she had gone in with her coworkers and raised $20.
All they wanted was a car seat to keep the baby safe and free up mom to go to the grocery store alone with the baby. I took this as a challenge.
My 2 year old had a 1 year old highly rated car seat she was to big for, so I cheated a little and passed that along. I asked did she have a bouncer, swing ya know all that junk the rest of America takes for granted.
No, Pat said she has nothing. She works all the time and her mother watches her daughter. She financially supports her mom, herself and her daughter on 7 bucks an hour.
So Karma and I went shopping.
Saturday in mid- May is prime sale season. On this particular day there were 29 subdivision garage sales, each sale having 11-110 sale houses.
I started at 7:30. Now one of the problems with starting early is that people are reluctant to negotiate prices with the first person on their blacktop, they figure someone else will stop and happily pay $35 for their exersaucer complete with last month's rice cereal splatterings.
By 8 I had not had much luck, so I started telling this chick's story. I told mommy after mommy "can you imagine having no network of relatives and friends to help you get the basic things you need- is there any way you can come down on prices?"
The mommies invariably looked around and thought about all the requirements to mommydom on their driveway and recalled how they really hadn't bought a lot of it. Grandma, Grandpa and Auntie HooHoo binged at Babies R Us in their honor.
They also remarked- no car seat? How is that possible?
To most people around here, putting your child in anything less than a Britax car seat is a breach of the parental contract.
Soon my car was full, I got a nearly new stroller, cool swing with the mobil attached, bath seat, exersaucer and a vibrating bouncy.
The mother who received it all was so thrilled so didn't even speak- then she hugged me. I told her it wasn't me I told her about all the women I had met that day who had dug through their stuff and given me things for her. I told her everybody has been there- being broke is hard being broke with children is living in a constant state of panic that lots of women know.
Giving someone else the baby junk that you loved is one of the ways women show their love and care for one another.
I told Pat the only other thing I could think of that wasn't really a requirement was a Bumbo seat- which is a very cool invention and the newest mommy must have, though I said it's kind of new and I have never seen one at Goodwill before.
I walked into Goodwill this morning and there she was perfectly pink and $1.99- a Bumbo seat.
I am still on the lookout for a high chair and baby girl clothes, but tomorrow is Saturday and Karma is my co-pilot.
Tags: Bumbo Seat  , Peg Perego , Britax , Karma , Goodwill , Naperville garage sales |
1 Comments
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Geez! You're good! Any chance you want to do the same for me and maybe take a road trip vacation up to Ontario this summer? Hell, I'll even pay for all the goods myself! You just can't find the stuff you manage to find around here and the prices you get stuff for is amazing!
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Posted by: mamaloo
at:
4:09pm 05/31/2007 |
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