I have a mental list of life skills I want to instill in my children. Don’t we all? Teaching them to be financially responsible is on my Mommy To-Do list.
Funny, because I was just talking to Eddie the other day about how Nicholas’ special needs suck up so much time that I was feeling like we (I) were neglecting other areas that I fully intended to focus on by this point, like giving him chores and teaching him about money, etc. Then we got a letter from his new Sunday school class that they would be collecting an offering from the kids in class each week. Well, there was my kick in the pants to get started with the earning/spending/saving/donating money business. You’re a funny God like that, You.
He already had a piggy bank that my sister gave him for Christmas. (It’s red and black because those are the colors of the University of Maryland, my husband’s alma mater. Makes for a creepy-looking pig, but it works for us.) This morning we took out some of the money and divided it up.
I love these divided piggy banks from Amazon.com, but I’m not spending $17 for a piggy bank when we already have one.
So, for now, plastic bags will work. We put some of his money in a bag for the offering and put it in his church backpack. Then we put $2 and some extra change for tax in another bag and went to the “toy store.”
Yes, my kids think Goodwill is the toy store. Shhhhh…don’t tell them any differently.
I honestly didn’t think that any of my endless rambling about what we were doing as we (and by “we” I mean “I”) sorted the money, put it into bags, etc had sunken in, so I was really surprised at how differently Nicholas acted while we were in the store.
Normally he is a hot mess running from one toy aisle to another and asking me “Can I have this?” but today was pleasantly different.
He spent almost half an hour examining this $1.97 fire truck! I kept asking him if he had decided that was what he wanted to spend his money on and he would say things like “Just a minute, I’m still thinking.”
Finally, I had to tell him that it was time to decide if we were going to buy the truck or put the money back in our piggy bank and save it for another day.
Then he finally got in line
and paid for his fire truck with his own money. The cashier told him he would make a great banker one day because he kept such good track of his money.
AND there was a little old couple who were very impressed with him because as we were walking into the store the husband was holding the door for his wife and Nicholas asked, “Excuse me, sir, can we come in too please?” Yes, he said that exact phrase without me prompting him in any way. Every time we saw them in the store they said, “Oh there’s that young man with the nice manners.”
You’ll have to excuse me while I pinch myself. Sorry to brag, but I have to blog about that because the times my son gets noticed in public for good behavior are few and far between.
Oh, and mommy got some good deals too. I bought Hungry Caterpillar and Little Bear board games for less than $2 each (The same Little Bear game sells on Amazon for $48.95! apparently games from 1999 are “vintage”) and a Beverley Cleary book for $0.47. This book is not age-appropriate for my kids just yet, but the teacher in me cannot pass up books by well-known authors when they come with a $0.47 price tag.
Yeah! A nice little outing, good stuff cheap, and the feeling that you are doing something right as a parent (for once). Can’t beat that. 🙂
What You’re Saying