raising socially-conscious children

With the weather changing, I have done the annual clothing needs assessment. Andrew needs long pants and a hoodie. Jessi needs some jeans (hopefully some that will accommodate her tiny waist and long legs.) Bev and Kiki need long-sleeved shirts.

Friday, Bev and I headed over to Target to check some things off the list. We were in the girl's section when she turned to me and said, "Mom, it makes me sad--some of these clothes were made by kids."

Me: "Say what?"

Her: "We learned about it in Social Studies."

I knew she had been learning about the economy, but apparently she had learned about child labor as well.

She told me that she had learned that children around the world work for a dollar a day to help support their families.

Neither of us was really in the mood to shop anymore. We got the gifts we needed to buy and left.

As we were driving home she asked if we could only buy stuff that little kids didn't make. She is SO my daughter.

I took this global economy class in college where we studied U.S. companies that moved their manufacturing overseas for cheap labor. I didn't buy Nike or Levi's or Dole for a long time after that class.

I do now. I got apathetic. I just buy whatever my precious Target sells me--like a zombie consumer. I guess I better do some research. She's not letting it go. I overheard her telling Christian (as he was putting his laundry away) that, "Little kids probably made that underwear."