"Senior Moments" Articles
*as featured in The New Haven Register, Living Section

Children are not necessarily a cute accessory

By Jean Cherni, H. Pearce Company's Senior Living Services Program

Articles

2008

Not long ago, an article that caught my attention, concerned the difficulty of maintaining a sophisticated decor when small children appear on the scene. Several young, obviously affluent couples who had become parents rather late in life, were featured. They all bemoaned the fact that their homes and apartments which had been furnished with expensive name-designer furniture and accessories were now in jeopardy with the arrival of their first children. Apparently these young executive couples whose company value, would, I assume, include their ability to plan for unforeseen contingencies, had never given any thought to how a play pen or jump seat might prove a jarring contrast to their sleek, modern décor. Nor had any consideration been given to the incompatibility of fragile, murano glass lamps with the inborn accident-prone gene of all small children. One couple had, much to their decorative distaste, solved the problem of a sharp-edged Noguchi glass coffee table by wrapping the edges in some sort of plastic foam creating a centerpiece that looked as if it had fallen from outer space.

Although Val and I did not marry at a very young age (he was 34 and I was 27), we never encountered problems of this sort. Whatever furniture we had was strictly second-had or improvised. I recall that Val made a wonderful "change" table out of two unfinished dressers, pushed together and topped by solid wood door which he padded and then covered with a washable plastic. It was sturdy and an ideal height for changing, washing and dressing, two active little boys. When the kids had a cold, we ran the shower in the bath room full tilt, steaming up the entire apartment and de-wrinkling Val's one good suit at the same time it cleared the boy's stuffy noses. Our walk-up apartment in Chicago had only two things of much value ... a Zenith television ensconced in a French provincial cabinet (a wedding gift) and an elegant British pram. Val, using a convoluted logic understood only by other engineers, put a removable cardboard cover over the TV screen so it could be run 24/7, testing it fully before the warranty expired. We sold the TV when we left Chicago but the pram proved a good investment, looking as elegant after servicing three children, as it had the day we purchased it.

When we bought our first, little house in Chicago, there was almost nothing left in the checking account after closing but the children could run and play without fear of hurting anything and I was too enamored with my turquoise appliances to mind the lack of furniture. In any event, only one year after purchasing, we sold the house to accept a job offer which would take us to Japan. And Japan, as you may know, is a country where living with minimal possessions, has been transformed into an art.

While I certainly sympathize with young couples struggling to pay their bills in today's difficult economy and also relate to seniors like myself, making ends meet on a fixed income, I wonder if these times may mark a return to some values we have overlooked in the recent past. "A penny saved is a penny earned" and "It's smart to be thrifty". We need to replace the "gotta have, I deserve it and want it now" mentality with the "Do I really need it and can I afford it?" yardstick for purchases. Too much credit card debt, homes bought with nothing down and adjustable rates and home equity loans which use the house like an extra checking account, are not good for us as individuals and as we are now, belatedly aware, not good for our country, either.

Jean Cherni is founder of Senior Living Solutions, a retirement advisory service.  Contact her at jeancherni@sbcglobal.net or 15 The Ponds, Branford 06405.

H. Pearce Company REALTORS® is a full-service real estate company with more than 100 agents and branch offices in greater New Haven and the Shoreline. Corporate and & Commercial offices are located in North Haven, where the company was founded in 1958. All listings can be found in color on the web at: www.hpearce.com.




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