Graduations and proms, are they over the top?

Now that our youth are out of school for the summer (at least the majority of them are out of school), I figured this would be a great time to sound off on two issues that have been tugging at my brain, proms and graduations.

- Thera Martin

Let me start with proms. I'll preface my thoughts by admitting I'm a 65-year-old grandmother. I am old school, and at this point in my life, I absolutely believe that people should spend their money wisely, no matter what their financial status is, in life. If you are low-income, you definitely should move wisely. You can be as proud of your child or children as you want to be--but it has never made sense to me, for example, to spend all your paychecks during the month of December purchasing gifts and then when its time to pay your bills, you sit there looking stupid, because you already spent up all your cash for the month, on gifts.

I know a young person who was on the honor roll during his senior year in high school. He worked pretty hard over the school year, and his family was proud of his achievements. So, when it came time for his senior prom, his mother wanted him to have whatever he wanted to wear, etc. Well, lucky for the young man, his Godmother purchased him the suit he wanted--to his credit, the young man had a job throughout the school year (part-time), and he had earned enough money to purchase himself shoes and other accessories. The young man had to have an $800 pair of shoes. As it turned out, the "shoes" he purchased were actually sneakers. I was imagining when I learned he got a pair of $800 "shoes" they would be real shoes. The young man wanted a $500 belt, and he got that as well.

Fast forward to 4 weeks after graduation, and the young man is starting a wonderful job with all kinds of potential for growth and earning excellent money. The job is about a 30-minute drive on the expressway from where he lives. But guess what? The last car he had, was in an accident, so he has no wheels, and he didn't have wheels before the prom.