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Jane Kaczmarek
Malcolm's Mom Talks Money
By Shel Franco
iP: How do your kids take not getting a present?
JK: People still bring something. My mother will still send something, so they end up with three or four things to open as opposed to 20 things to open. And we talk to them about it. They are 7, 5 and 2, so the 7-year-old is starting to understand it. Children emulate their parents and they see their parents doing things and they mimic their parents. I like to play the piano and all the kids take music and Brad plays the viola. They see us playing musical instruments and it makes them want to do it because it is fun and it sounds nice and it is a nice family thing to do together. I am just hoping that this is something they grow up with and it just seems natural as anything.
iP: Do you feel like growing up in the Midwest helped shape your values?
JK: This was not a big family value growing up, unfortunately. My parents are very good about saving money; they were really very resourceful. My father used to always get a Christmas tree for $1. He would cut off branches and drill holes into the trunk where there were empty spots and glue branches into the tree. It was amazing; he would make this phenomenal tree out of this Charlie Brown-est tree on the lot. I grew up with very clever parents; they could make things look really good on very little. I was raised with the idea that you are capable of doing a lot. But the whole giving thing really happened as a combination of going to church and really becoming hugely successful on a television show. Because you can't believe the stuff that people give you. I am doing an event tonight and if I wear earrings from this place they will make a donation to Clothes Off Our Back. So sure, great, I have to wear earrings anyway. Oh, my gosh, people want to advertise. Hopefully you will mention their earrings. There are just a lot of opportunities once you become aware of that. Part of it is that I had my children late and I had my success late, you know I was really in my 40s when all of this happened.
iP: You were in a good place.