Quality vs Cost – The Never Ending Battle of being a Dad / Architect
This morning I had a frustrating conversation with my almost 8-year-old. She was very proud yesterday to have saved her allowance to be able to purchase her own doll at the store. She has been wishing for this doll for months, often losing focus and donating her money instead of making the purchase she wanted. The same day she purchased the doll the arm of the doll pulled out of the connection. She left it for me to fix. The cheap plastic just bent when I tried to put it back together, but I managed to make it work, for now.
I explained to her that the doll she was playing with was very poorly made and this should be something she remembers in the future when making a purchase. The quality of the product is more important than the price (note it took her months to save up for a doll that cost a couple of dollars and a month to an 8-year-old is equal to 10 years). She explained to me that the doll was pretty so it did not matter about the quality. I tried to win the argument that aesthetics should not be the driving factor if there is no quality. I failed.
So how do you make your decisions, do aesthetics trump everything or do you factor in quality to your decision?