Tuesday, August 2, 2011

My Kids Speak A New Language

The language of money that is. It is amazing to me as older kids how little else motivates them but how a small amount of money motivates them greatly.

This of course has both positives and negatives. The positives are I can "hire out" the chores I don't want to do like lawn mowing and vacuuming and cleaning out my car. Sure they kids don't do as good of a job as I do but for a couple dollars it is worth it to me. The negative is I could go broke hiring out chores, depending upon their desire for money any given week. Also, hubby and I firmly believe that there is a certain amount of chores necessary just due to being a member of this household.

The things my kids want to spend their hard earned money on also cracks me up. Mostly it is junk, candy, gum, soda, stuff I don't usually buy them. Occasionally they will save for a toy they want but usually the money is spent as soon as they earn it. I do force them to save too. Right now we are saving for our Orlando trip. When we went to Disneyland in March of 2009, the kids were able to save $1000 in 15 months, pretty impressive! I also encourage them to give to those less fortunate than themselves, our Compassion children, charities that interest them, or even our church. Despite all this most of their money gets wasted but they've worked hard for it and they're happy so I try not to put too many restrictions on how it is spent.

I know they are getting older and their tastes will just keep getting more and more expensive. Hopefully I can keep this up so when they want a cell phone, designer jeans, and the latest electronic, I can simply say, "sorry, you'll have to save your money for that". We'll see how that works for me!

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