sharing your lottery number with your kids
/by Joyce Szuflita
I have been thinking about the random number and your kids. It may be time to have a talk with them - long before the numbers are released for middle school and high school, and make a plan for your family.
Usually when the numbers come out, they are shared wildly and irresponsibly on the playground, causing undue anxiety and pain. You have the power to stop this. The lottery numbers are not your fate. They are a tie breaker when there are candidates of equal priority. There are MANY factors in this process and giving the kids a nonsensical couple of digits out of context is not helpful. I am not saying that the random numbers are not an important tool to understanding how to make a solid application. They are very important for you and I am glad that you know them. There can be knowledge gained in doing a little crowd sourcing and responsible and kind conversations to gain insight among parents can be helpful. Remember that your kids will take their cue from you, and if the number sends you into a tailspin, how are they going to react? You need to give your children context to understand the random numbers, and also you need to help them consider how talking about the numbers can affect other people. They may think sharing their good fortune will make everyone happy for them. Their most generous friends may be able to work up a little half hearted enthusiasm, but mostly it may make other people feel very sorry for themselves, maybe for not much reason. It can silently send other kids into a spiral of hopelessness and defeat before they have even started their first day of middle or high school! If it were me - I would explain the pain that indiscriminately sharing the number can cause to others and I would ask them how we should handle it as a family. Do they really need to know the exact percentile? They don't. It is a helpful tool for you. Sharing your lottery number or asking someone to share theirs, or your SHSAT score, your SAT's or LSAT's is bad manners. And if they ask, you don’t have to tell them. This is your family's private information and demanding to know someone else's number is inappropriate. Instead, be positive. Be thoughtful. Be supportive.
