Saturday, March 25, 2006

On the spot...

So on Thursday a coworker asks me if I have a breastpump, to which I reply, well, we were going to borrow one from ***** and just replace the parts. Well, she tells me that her stepdaughter has one and decided not to use it, would we be interested? So I say, well, find out what kind it is and how much she wants for it.

So Friday after lunch, this coworker comes in my office with two bags full of stuff. The breastpump, clothes, diapers, etc. She tells me the girl loaded up the stuff because the baby's outgrown it and I'm welcome to have it. She says she paid $35 for the breast pump, but whatever I want to offer is fine. Then my coworker goes on to tell me how this girl is working at Wal-Mart making $7 something an hour, and only has $9 left over from her paycheck each month after rent and bills. But she's also getting $200 something in child support but her babysitter, who is currently free, won't be able to baby sit anymore so she has to find day care. So I'm feeling terrible for this girl, thinking, man, two bags of stuff here and my coworker is saying how she needs the money and yada yada yada. So I'm like okay, well, I'll take this home and talk to my husband and I'll bring my check book in on Monday. I'm thinking of paying her something like $50 for the two bags. Here, her mother's telling me what a sad case it is and all.

So I come home and talk to Bryan about it - we look through the stuff. First, we would never use the breast pump. Second, most of the clothes are premmie! So out of the two bags of stuff, we find about 10 things we could use, plus some socks plus a small bag of diapers, size 1. So now, I'm like, wait, I didn't ask for any of this...I'm won't even use the breast pump or the miniature clothes and I'm going to pay some girl $50 for stuff that we won't use and didn't even ask for? And now I'm mad because the mom, my coworker, has put me on the spot. So all night I'm sick to my stomach thinking about this girl and how she doesn't have money and what should I do about the clothes...

UGH. Here's what I decided. I'm not responsible for getting her pregnant or for her not having a good job or education or a husband. If it was stuff we could use, yes, I'd pay her for it. So I've packed everything up, except the things we could use. I'm going to take them back to work on Monday and tell the mom (coworker) that it was considerate of her to think of us, but we just won't use these things. That I've kept a few things and would $20 be enough for those things. And I think I'll suggest that she try to take the other stuff to a consingment shop where she could get a better deal for it.

Does this make me a bad person? Rather than give her the $20, I'd like to buy her diapers or some clothes for the baby, that way I'd know where the money was going, but I guess that isn't my responsibility either.

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