Ummm, you're serving that?
I read an article recently (I think it was in Newsweek) about the connection between food and economic class. You know, the idea that the upper class are those who can afford to eat healthful, organic food, while the poor folk have to rely on the dollar menu at McDonald's for their sustenance. A bit more complicated than that, but still an interesting concept that I find so truthful.
I don't make money. I go to school full time, do a little writing on the side, intern for the editorial staff of a magazine, and stay home with Henry, our two-year-old little boy. I didn't say that I don't work because that simply isn't true. I work - harder than most. I just don't make any money for the job(s) that I do. So unfair.
My husband does make money. He makes more money than I ever dreamed of making myself. It supports our family, but we really like to spend it. As more money comes, more money goes. I certainly wouldn't describe us as savers.
The good thing about our spending, I think, is that we're spending on good stuff. Like organic food, for example. My husband eats meat, but I don't want to have factory-farmed, antibiotic and hormone-filled meat in the house, so we spend more, a lot more, on organic, free-range meat. We also like other fresh, organic, and thus, more expensive foods - like fruits and veggies. Pesticides are bad, right? I don't want Henry consuming all of those bad chemicals! I don't think there's anything wrong with that.
Growing up in rural, middle-class America, my parents purchased the products that were the most cost-effective. The Target brand of toilet paper is on sale? Well, then we're wiping with Target toilet paper this week. I don't even know if "organic" food was an option back then, I never payed attention at the grocery. But if it was, my parents certainly would not have shelled out the extra money for an organic label.
Boy, have times changed, at least for me.
I'm a board member for the MOMS Club of Cherry Creek (just another of my unpaid tasks). In Denver, "Cherry Creek" is typically synonymous with "upper class." I would not consider my family to be upper class, but many of the moms in this club certainly fall into that category. Million dollar homes, private airplanes, luxury cars, vacation homes in the mountains - yep, definitely upper class. Perhaps my modest home and Honda Accord can't compete, but there is no way that my child is going to eat sub par food while their children eat caviar. Well, not really caviar, but you get the point.
There is also no way that I'm going to host a board meeting at my home and serve chips and salsa, while the other moms serve organic blackberries, raspberries, almonds, and homemade breads.
So, we spend the money. We spend the money in order to be healthier, but we also spend the money in order to keep up with the Jones', or whoever.
We're upper-class-wannabe, middle-class-folk who cut corners elsewhere so we can afford to eat healthy, organic, gluten-free, delicious food.
Am I being a total snob?
I don't make money. I go to school full time, do a little writing on the side, intern for the editorial staff of a magazine, and stay home with Henry, our two-year-old little boy. I didn't say that I don't work because that simply isn't true. I work - harder than most. I just don't make any money for the job(s) that I do. So unfair.
My husband does make money. He makes more money than I ever dreamed of making myself. It supports our family, but we really like to spend it. As more money comes, more money goes. I certainly wouldn't describe us as savers.
The good thing about our spending, I think, is that we're spending on good stuff. Like organic food, for example. My husband eats meat, but I don't want to have factory-farmed, antibiotic and hormone-filled meat in the house, so we spend more, a lot more, on organic, free-range meat. We also like other fresh, organic, and thus, more expensive foods - like fruits and veggies. Pesticides are bad, right? I don't want Henry consuming all of those bad chemicals! I don't think there's anything wrong with that.
Growing up in rural, middle-class America, my parents purchased the products that were the most cost-effective. The Target brand of toilet paper is on sale? Well, then we're wiping with Target toilet paper this week. I don't even know if "organic" food was an option back then, I never payed attention at the grocery. But if it was, my parents certainly would not have shelled out the extra money for an organic label.
Boy, have times changed, at least for me.
I'm a board member for the MOMS Club of Cherry Creek (just another of my unpaid tasks). In Denver, "Cherry Creek" is typically synonymous with "upper class." I would not consider my family to be upper class, but many of the moms in this club certainly fall into that category. Million dollar homes, private airplanes, luxury cars, vacation homes in the mountains - yep, definitely upper class. Perhaps my modest home and Honda Accord can't compete, but there is no way that my child is going to eat sub par food while their children eat caviar. Well, not really caviar, but you get the point.
There is also no way that I'm going to host a board meeting at my home and serve chips and salsa, while the other moms serve organic blackberries, raspberries, almonds, and homemade breads.
So, we spend the money. We spend the money in order to be healthier, but we also spend the money in order to keep up with the Jones', or whoever.
We're upper-class-wannabe, middle-class-folk who cut corners elsewhere so we can afford to eat healthy, organic, gluten-free, delicious food.
Am I being a total snob?
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