Day 165
School shopping with the kids tonight is one activity that we all agree that we dislike. The kids hate trying on clothes. I hate trying to figure out what kind of pants will ever stay on my younger son when his legs seem to be growing exponentially, but his waist remains skinny as ever. My husband hates being a witness to how much it actually costs to keep our kids clothed.
To end the evening, and to celebrate finding 3 pair of pants that didn't immediately fall to the floor when my son put them on, we went out to dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant in the town where we were shopping. It is a family owned place that has been open about two years. It was not very busy at all for a Saturday night, much quieter than last time we had been there. The owner told us that the town council recently had eliminated the BYOB option from all restaurants in town, and that business had declined ever since. I'm sure the economy is playing a part as well, but it was sad to see how someone's chance of achieving the “American dream” dwindling. The owner had been, unsuccessfully, trying to reach some agreement with the town council and had posted a message asking customers to try to effect some kind of change as well.
I don't know much about the politics involved, and whether or not we could bring alcohol to the place didn't effect us in the least. But when I got home I emailed all the members of the town council to say that this family owned restaurant was a treasure and urged them to consider ways to work with locally owned business to help them survive this recession.
I'm not optimistic that any change will come before the place is out of business for good, but I do feel like it was important to try.
I have the same problem with pants, but it's with my oldest son! It's so hard to keep kids clothed these days and not go totally broke.
ReplyDeleteI hope that restaurant makes it somehow- it really is a sad thing to see small businesses have to close because of economy and such.