Itty Bitty Teenie Weenie Tiny Toys

Once Stevi turned about 4, the toys she started asking for got smaller and smaller.  She started with a small collection of Lalaloopies, one doll will fit in the palm of your hand.

Then she wanted some littlest pet shop animals, not only are they small but their heads come off (sorta creepy!!)  Then there are tiny little My Little Ponies and tiny Care Bears.  So when we were at Target today looking for a reward for her next Good Girl Chart, I figured we would stick to what she already has a collection of, but she really REALY wanted a new collection, they are called shopkins, the smallest of all the things she has asked for.

None of my boys had teeny tiny toys, shoot I didn't have teenie tiny toys when I was young.  I wonder when the itty bitty teenie weenie tiny toy fad started, and why as parents are we buying these small toys.

The little peasant girl.

Long long ago, lived a little peasant girl.  The little girl lost her parents and was taken in by one of the village families.  The family wasn't that nice to the little girl, since she was the oldest she was often forced to watch the families little children, feed them and clean up after them.  Many times the Master of the house would call the little girl terrible names like "You wrenched little ogre" or say mean things to her like "Your descendants are dirty ugly trolls and you will never be anything more then a slave girl".  Anytime the family's children did wrong the girl would be blamed and punished.  The little girl hated living with the family, but was thankful she wasn't sleeping in the muddy stables out back, this was something the family's grandmama reminded her of almost daily.

The little girl often cried and prayed for the death shadow to come and take her away, the way he did with her mother, but he never did come.

One day, the little girl was outside cleaning the muddy stables, praying her prayer to the death shadow, when she saw something twinkling in the corner.  She dropped her broom and went towards the sparkling small lights, as she got closer she saw it was a pixie stuck in the mud.  The little girl felt sorry for the pixie, no one should be stuck in this horrible place she thought, and carefully freed the pixie.  The pixie spun around in happy little circles and danced around the little girl.  "Thank you thank you" whispered the pixie.  "I am magical and can share some magic with you" the pixie said to the little girl. "A NEW FAMILY" the little girl exciting told the pixie, "It's what I want the most" whisper the little girl.  The pixie frowned, and replied "I can not do such big magic, I am just a little creature with little magic", and then the pixie had an idea "I can make your family bigger!"... "NOOOOOO" cried the girl, "Please no, I can't take more mean people in this family, I just can't", but it was too late the pixie had waved her little hands and poofed - disappeared.

Sure enough the little girls family had grown, she now had an Aunt, and Uncle and some cousins.  These family members were nothing like the the Master, Lady, or Grandmama... They were kind, nice, and caring.

Even though the little girl still had to endure many years of abuse from the family, she had a safe place to go, and be happy at, people who loved her and made her feel like she was somebody.

--Last night my Aunt Ellen died, she was a special lady and I loved/love her.  Even though I hadn't seen her in years, she held/holds a very special place in my heart, she made my life a little better and she she made me a little better, to her I wasn't her foster niece, I was just her niece.

Welfare is for the Drug Addicted Lazy People Who Keep Having Babies To Get More Money!

This is what you might believe if you spent a few months believing posts from friends and family on Facebook.

Posts saying that since I have to drug test to have a job, then welfare recipients should have to drug test.  Even though the states that do this or did this and stopped found that the amount of money they saved on denying those 2% of people who failed a drug test didn't even come close to the amount of money it cost testing every applicant.

Posts saying that "It's wrong to tax a working person almost to the breaking point then give it to a person who is able to work but refuses to.  But studies show that more then 60% of those on welfare do work, even if not full time.  The Californian average for a family of 4 receives $1025 a month (thats cash and food stamps) They are hardly living high on the hog.  Meanwhile the taxes paid by Americans are relatively low both compared to our own history and most of the developed world, and only a small proportion of those taxes go to welfare.

I have collected welfare.  In California you can only collect for 5 years in your life time, They require you to participate in job training and help you get out there to find a job, and if you don't, they cut you off.  Whatever your family size is after the first year of collecting welfare is your set family sized for the remainder of the time you are on welfare, so if you have 4 more kids in the next 4 years, you do not get more money or more food stamps.

It's easy to judge those things that seem unfair...

"Why do they get free money when I work my ass off"
"Wow he has an iphone and he is paying for his food with EBT"
"They probably spend all their money on cigarettes and Beer"

But until you actually have to walk in their shoes, have to spend hours and days applying for welfare, after you waited for months to get approved, and feeling the joy of being able to actually buy some groceries at a grocery store instead of just taking what has been handed to you at the food bank, until you know what it is truly like to fear losing your job because your state funded daycare has ran out and you can't afford both rent and childcare.  Until you lay awake at night crying because your aren't sure you can keep playing "bill paying roulette" and stay afloat.  Until you have to tell your child you can't afford to send them the Science camp with all their friends because you can't afford it... After all that I still don't think you should judge...but if you do after all that at least you aren't doing it blindly.

Rather then pointing the finger and saying "Not fair, Not fair" like a four year old, maybe we should be thankful that you don't need to be on welfare.