One Saturday morning, Jeremy woke up to a quiet house. Usually Mom was awake making breakfast and cleaning the kitchen, but not today. At the sound of his mom coughing, Jeremy knocked on her bedroom door and asked with great concern, “Mom, are you ok?” “Honey,” Mom said weakly. “I have a terrible cold. You can have cereal (燕麦) for breakfast and watch cartoons. I’m going to stay in bed.”

Jeremy poured some cereal into a bowl and ate the pieces dry. Mom must feel very bad if she was staying in bed all day. How could Jeremy help? First, he wiped up the crumbs of cereal he left on the kitchen counter. He also put away the cereal box neatly, so the kitchen looked just as it did when he woke up. But what else could he do? Jeremy thought. Saturday was the day when mom did laundry. Jeremy loved to watch the clothes spinning in the machine. That should be fun! He ran to his room to get the laundry basket, inside which there was his mother’s favorite white dress, among other clothes and a pair of red socks.

Jeremy opened the door to the washer and put the clothing inside. He had watched Mom do laundry lots of times, so he knew where to find the washing powder and how to pour it into the machine. Finally, he closed the door and pressed the big button that said “START.” Jeremy looked through the round glass window. Water was pouring in, and the machine was starting to spin, making his clothing tumble around. That was easy!

Jeremy watched cartoons until he heard the washing machine beep. That meant the washing was done. Jeremy opened the door to take out the damp clothes. He took out a few at a time and moved them into the dryer. Everything seemed clean, and Jeremy felt proud. Then he pulled out a pink dress.

But he remembered there was no pink dress in the laundry basket.

Holding the neatly folded pink dress, Jeremy nervously knocked at his mom’s bedroom door again.

When I was a baby, my parents gave me anything I wanted. Then my dad died when I was two and a half, and I got even more stuff as my mom, friends and family gave me more and more to try to make me feel better. But when I was seven, my world changed.

That was when the real estate market(房地产) crashed. My mom had thought that buying houses was a good idea as a way to invest her money to take care of us. After the crash, I went from the kid who got an iPod when his tooth fell out and who had the coolest house to hang out in, to literally, having nowhere to stay.

After the real estate crash, when I would ask for a new toy, or bike, or even to see a movie my mom would say “maybe for your birthday” or “I’m sorry honey, but we can’t really afford that right now.” I didn’t know it then, but my mom had grown up in a family where money was never a problem, so this change was as big for her as it was for me. My constant requests for toys and video games were not helping my mom, who was to deal with her feelings about our new crisis—our financial situation. But I wasn’t used to hearing “no” so for a year or two I kept asking.

Then something happened that would change my way of thinking forever. My mom had been working really hard all year, just to pay for the necessities, like our water and power bill. When she asked me what I wanted for my birthday I said that I wanted a new video gaming system. I didn’t know that it was expensive. All I knew was that my friends had them and that I wanted one too.

On my birthday, I believed that I would get what I wanted when opening the presents.

From then on, I learned the difference between what I wanted and what I needed.

It was a cold yet sunny Saturday morning in February. Dad’s New Year’s resolution had been to get fit. Mum pushed him out of bed and told him to go jogging by the river. Later, after a nice lie-in, she went downstairs in her dressing gown and found the kids watching TV. She turned it off and said she was going to do something really special for Dad’s birthday. If they overheard anything, just promised to keep it secret.

Jenny looked at Mum with a puzzled expression on her forehead and promised they wouldn’t say anything whatever happened. But Jenny reminded Dad’s birthday was in June and it might be a little too early to get all steamed up about it.

Silent for a moment, Mum said she was not getting everything ready but just wanted to spare enough time for preparation as this year it’s a bigger deal than usual. Dad was going to be 50.

“50! Gosh, that’s half a century,” spluttered Gerry. “I knew he was old, but I didn’t realize he was ancient!?”

Indeed, that was why Mum started planning a special party for him. Mum talked with grandma about the plan because her house was the only one in the family that is spacious enough for all friends and relatives. Grandma quite agreed and also started preparing.

“But you know how Dad feels guilty to bother others. You’ve got to admit,” reminded Jenny. Thinking over the special occasion, Mum was continuing with her secret when one evening, Dad was sitting at the dinner table and he suddenly slapped his forehead, “I just realized that I am going to be 50 in June. Let’s just quietly forget about it. I want to mourn (哀悼) the passing of my youth in private.”

“Oh, come on Dad, don’ t be such a spoil-sport!” begged the kids, hoping to give mum a hand.

Realizing no more chance to hide the secret, Mum carefully worded her thought and shared her plan of having a little party at grandma’s house. Dad was stunned(震惊的) to no reply.

Frustrated, Mum made a call to Grandma.

They got everything ready as planned when June finally came.