In Reply to: Re: A question for ex-childcare workers posted by Donny on March 10, 2003 at 20:37:33:
Although toys were approved of, many people often had very little access to these luxuries and my boys had matchbox cars, maybe a tonka truck. One birthday, one of my boys got a pedal car. But many in fact most years, there was nothing for christmas but maybe a cheap jar of bubbles or something comparable, or nothing at all. It all depended where a person was and who was the shepherds. Also, though I brought in good money from singing in clubs, I was often in places where it was hard to keep my kids in raggedy hand me downs and a few store bought items. Store bought items were rare.
My kids got made fun of in school because of the poverty level. (first and second grade)So there were ups and downs with more downs for me.
Then there was a period of time when travelling with a big family, I would go sing in clubs while the kids went out busking with others. They had better clothes, but always few. And then there were the matching outfits for singing.
Well, that was actually something they enjoyed because the guy that took them was a big ole kid in a huge person's body. And they found the excitement (which they survived!) was fun. (Especially compared with many families with kids.) And they went on pick-nicks and outings and ate well. That was probably the closest to normal, and it was far from normal, whatever that is, in many ways.
Glad they got out young!!!