Probably about a year ago I bought the kids a cute little cash register as a gift along with some little wooden coins. It hasn't been played with a lot (not my best purchase apparently) so I was somewhat surprised when Quinn brought it out yesterday and informed me that she wanted to play "Payer". She got out her purse and I gave her some coins and off she went through the house searching for things to buy. After she came back she handed me the items, which I carefully rang up and declared that the total came to $8. I told her to take out her coins and was about to embark on a wonderful math lesson when she told me "Mommy you don't use those. You use this..." And out she pulled a Starbucks gift card that Raif had let them play with several days earlier. She promptly slid the card through the side of the register and proceeded to gather her things and walk away.
It was then that it hit me that I don't think that the kids have ever seen either Raif or I pay for something with anything else but a credit card. The concept of paper and coin money completely escapes them because they have never experienced it. As Quinn trotted off with her purchases in hand I started to think about what she must think of buying things - that everything can be yours with just a swipe of a little plastic card.
What have we, as a society, burdened ourselves with by becoming a community that works on plastic from a child rearing perspective? The obvious math lessons of the cashier says $8 dollars you give him $10 how much do you get back is obsolete. But more abstract than that - by using a credit card you never show them that purchases 'cost something.' When you give that $10 and get back $2 you show kids that you are getting back less than what you gave and thus what you purchased has value. Unless you show the kids your checkbook and your credit card statement every month they are never going to get that lesson.
I don't know why this moment has stirred all these thoughts in me, perhaps it is the CPA in me rearing its ugly head. Now is this going to change how I purchase things (i.e. I NEVER have any cash on me)? I don't know but it has now planted the seed in my mind that when my kids are old enough and have allowances and are given the autonomy to make purchasing decisions that I really need to implant on them the value of money and that the little plastic card is not a magic giveaway.
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1 comment:
Great point! We have switched to a cash budget for household items (mostly food etc) for the last year. Not only does it help keep ME on budget (us non-CPA types tend to have trouble with that) but it's been GREAT with Zach. He LOVES coins, so our deal is wherever we go if he can count/ add the change (coin change) he can keep it. He's suddenly very motivated about math.
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