A story this morning CBS 11 website in Dallas/Fort Worth caught my attention and I thought it deserved a couple of words. The story outlines a common theme: a husband loses his job, the family moves to find more work, loses home and posessions, sells anything of value, and is barely making ends meet. Then the Christmas season comes along. If you have children, you can empathize with parents who can’t afford Christmas. If there were anything to break a parent’s heart, it’s the perceived inability to provide a decent Christmas for your kids.

The couple in the story have turned to barter. The wife turned to Craigslists.com where her ad joined dozens of other ads from people wanting to barter services or other items for Christmas presents.

“I’ll split wood. I’ll baby-sit. I’ll clean house. My husband’s a mechanic. He’ll work on cars,” she said.

Her hope? Get something in return that will give a smile to her kids faces.

Now, let’s insert a barter exchange in to the story. Same couple, same story. This time the husband, who has skills as a mechanic, joins a barter exchange in Dallas, doing extra work on weekends. If the exchange is worth anything, and we assume that it is, within a couple of weekends there would be enough trade built up to provide a nice Christmas for his family. Instead of wondering if his skills will produce anything, his broker would get on the phone, find people that need his services, and get them hooked up.

What I am finding in my constant barter research is that direct trades are still hard. It is still difficult to pair your wants with what someone else has and vice versa. In the upcoming week I will be doing a four part story pitting the best of the internet direct-trade sites against each other to see which is easiest and best at getting me what I want.

In the mean time, to all of the struggling parents out there, take an inventory of your skills, find a barter exchange to join, and use your skills to get Christmas.

You can read the full story in Dallas at http://cbs11tv.com/local/christmas.gift.barter.2.1346659.html

barter news, Christmas