I recently attended a training on mental health and one of the things that caught my attention was artificial scarcity. The professor kept teaching and highlighting how he had counseled so many parents who always made a very interesting statement of “I gave my child everything”. As he talked I evaluated myself and I had actually made this same statement so I paid attention more to understand his perspective. As he continued to lecture he told us about this young man that had studied in an international school and further learning in the United States only to come back and he was using drugs. This one time the young man went to the supermarket and stole a chocolate bar worth 10,000 and immediately he was got there was an escalation of the matter to police and they needed his parents to pay 500,000 in order for the young man to be released and so the statement came back, his parents frustrated thinking of everything that they had given him! The professor paused a question asking if giving children everything is what solved their problems and the answer was certainly not. He went a head to explain about creating an artificial scarcity situation in our homes. That’s when I really leaned in to listen, he advised to for example instead of meat eat cabbage, dodo as soup 😂😂😂 when I calculated how much I would be spending on soups the money was significantly going to reduce. So I tried it out, instead of bread I bought popcorn and gnuts. Instead of beans, meat etc we actually ate cabbage, dodo and the kids loved it! Guess what it was cheaper with the way January was looking as if, this was the solution! We had more than enough I must say. I no longer hear my son say mummy we don’t have bread for breakfast he has learnt how to make popcorn 🍿 and it’s working. I feel so free not being worried about 10,000 not being enough to feed a family of 8 yes 8 we even bless our neighbors 😂
