OFWs spoil their kids
Below is a link and an excerpt from an interesting news article about OFWs spoiling their kids. It is difficult for OFWs not to spoil their children, because they feel guilty over leaving them to work abroad. As a result, they over compensate, and spoil the kids, giving in to their every whim. How can a worker avoid this "spoiling syndrome"? By sitting down with the whole family and having a clear financial goal, e.g., "We are going to save 200,000 pesos and buy a house. Until we reach that goal, all other expenses will be kept to a minimum. Do we all agree?" One of our 2010 goals for Arrow is to implement financial counselling for the families of OFWs before they come to HK. If we can achieve this goal, we think it will make a big difference in their lives.
PHILIPPINES: Belt-tightening by Migrant Workers Unfelt at Home By Tess Bacalla*
BATANGAS, Philippines, Dec 18 (IPS) - The global financial crisis may have dealt a severe blow to Filipino migrant workers, thousands of whom lost their jobs and fell into debt. But public schoolteacher Melinda Mendoza does not see this impact at all -- at least not within the four walls of her classroom.
On the contrary, Mendoza, 45, is bothered no end by her pupils’ ostentatious display of opulence in a poor rural setting, where luxury is atypical.
"They have huge allowances," says the teacher of 21 years in the government-run Pulong Anahao Elementary School, located in the town of Mabini here in Batangas province, a two-hour drive south of Manila.
On top of that, the students own electronic gadgets like mobile phones that are no match to those of a public school teacher like Mendoza. She earns a measly few thousands of pesos a month, hardly enough to buy a high-end unit that is a status symbol in this South-east Asian country, at least 30 percent of whose 90 million people live in poverty.
