Is this taking pampering a little too far?

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   thirdmilleniumposted 13 years ago

   I heard a man pawned his car (CAR!) in order to collect funds to buy toys for his 10 year old kid. What do you call this?

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      mistyhorizon2003posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Unless he needed his car to earn money to put food on his families table I call this a really great loving Dad who didn't want to see his son disappointed at Christmas (assuming that was when he did it).
      
      How much was his car worth anyway, an old banger might only be worth a few hundred pounds or dollars?

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      Bredaviesposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      ....How did he get to the toy store then? hahaha!

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   KCC Big Countryposted 13 years ago

   Sounds like a man who loves his child more than his car if you asked me.

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      mistyhorizon2003posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      LOL, do I detect a hint of sarcasm here KCC???

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   Hawkers Bazaarposted 13 years ago

   Did he buy a toy car?

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      Home Girlposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      My question is :  what he is going to pawn when his child is  16?
      It's a dangerous game.

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   JodyCposted 13 years ago

   I think that he's spoiling his kid. If he wants his kid to know the true value of money, the kid will have to earn it by e.g doing a house hold chore or something.

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      L a d y f a c eposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Maybe his kid does so that stuff, and really has earned something nice but they don't have the money to buy him anything. Maybe he's among many families living below the poverty line who can't give their children anything, and wish every day they could. It could be that he just really wanted the money to buy something his kid deserved, and maybe even put a little food on the table in the mean time.
      
      Then again, maybe he's a crazy drug addict who pawned the car for drug money, bought the child a small toy as a scapegoat and got whacked by his wife who knows what he did.
      
      I like having fun with scenarios

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         L a d y f a c eposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Oops. Forgot the actual question here.
         I think it borders. When I was a kid we had no money, and I didn't get all the crazy awesome toys my friends did. Instead, we made toys from what we had around the house and had fun with it. Or we would have a games day and just play games inside and outside all day. Cheap fun!
         
         And also: How the heck do you pawn a car anyway? Lol I've never heard of anyone doing that before.

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            KCC Big Countryposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            There are companies that will loan you money and take the car as collateral.

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   thirdmilleniumposted 13 years ago

   I forgot to mention that he got whacked by his wife for losing their means of transport

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      mistyhorizon2003posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Interesting, but still too hard to 'judge' unless we know all the circumstances, such as if the transport was essential, valuable, etc. For all a reader knows the wife might have wanted the car to visit her drug dealer etc, we simply can't call this without further information that allows a reader to judge it fairly.

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   KCC Big Countryposted 13 years ago

   I agree with Mistyhorizon.  We don't know all of the circumstances.  I think it's also important to note the distinction between pawning a car and selling a car.  Pawning is usually what someone does who thinks/hopes/knows they will have the money to pick the item back up before a given date.  It's essentially a loan with interest.  Maybe he knew or expected to have funds to get the car back.

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   Disturbiaposted 13 years ago

   I think there is a lot more to this story than meets the eye.  What were the toys for... birthday, Christmas, just because? And what was the wife that "whacked" him for losing their means of transport doing while he was out pawning the car? Did he get the car back from the pawnshop?  Does he have a job, couldn't he do something other than pawn the family car? I'd like to know the whole story before I comment on it.

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   Flightkeeperposted 13 years ago

   I think it's an excuse.  He must have needed the money for something else more than toys.

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      mistyhorizon2003posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      But what if the car wasn't very valuable, like a bit of a wreck or something. It might not have fetched much money and only enough to buy a few toys?

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         Flightkeeperposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Even it it was a wreck, and got like a hundred bucks for it and he spent it on toys - those are pricy toys.  If he's drastic enough to pawn a car, I'm thinking something's up.

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            mistyhorizon2003posted 13 years agoin reply to this

            But if this was for Christmas Presents for example, then one or two hundred dollars is not a vast amount when you look at the prices of electronic gadgets like Nintendos, Play Stations etc. Although in my day I did not receive such expensive gifts, it seems the norm today.
            
            All in all this is too hard to call as we have such a tiny fragment of the story behind OP's original statement. I have to confess I would now like to know the background to the entire story just to see how much of a difference it makes to all of our 'opinions' and 'responses'.

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         Jim Hunterposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         I don't know of many pawnshops that take something they know won't turn a pretty good profit.

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            mistyhorizon2003posted 13 years agoin reply to this

            I guess it depends how much he pawned it for. They may have only given him the scrap value if it was an old banger!

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   lyndreposted 13 years ago

   Could have been worse.
   Could haved pawned the kid to buy a car

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    IzzyMposted 13 years ago

    It sounds sensible to me. If a family's income is low, the family car should be among the first things to go. Not only will be get some cash for it, but he will no longer have to fork out on insurance, road tax, gas etc. These costs mount up. It's no big deal if he has public transport where he lives, but if he lives like me in the sticks there is still hitch-hiking or simply asking friends for lifts. A car is a luxury, not a necessity.
    Hope the kid got something nice

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