After Sarah wrote the note about going to the store, we took her. She had been saving up her money and decided she finally wanted to spend it.
In addition to Tooth Fairy money, it was also money she had received and been saving from her grandparents for various reasons.
So we headed to Wal-mart on Sunday afternoon and proceeded to stimulate the economy.
Peter was very upset that he didn't have any money to spend. I had to remind him that he spent his money about a month ago.
After he finished grousing and complaining about not having any more money he said, "So what's a guy got to do to earn some money around here?"
Well, I'm glad you asked because I have a whole list of things!
We've tried several times to institute chores and allowances but the kids were never interested in receiving small sums of money for manual labor. They prefer to receive large sums of money for doing absolutely nothing.
But things may be changing around here.
After Christmas they decided to pool the money they both received to purchase a Wii. They had just enough money between the two of them to buy the system. But they also wanted a Super Mario Bros. game which cost around $50. I told them they were going to have work around the house to earn the money to buy the game they wanted.
So they worked very hard doing anything I asked them (and without complaint!) for three weeks and I bought them the game. We instituted a checklist. Anytime they did a chore without complaining they got a check. After they reached 200 checks, we got the game.
Now that Peter would like to purchase more games, he seems agreeable to the concept of working to earn money and then actually saving it for a specific purpose. And Sarah will always do whatever Peter does so now they have a weekly chore chart and an allowance. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this will actually work this time.
Who says computer games are ruining our kids? In this case they may actually be helping mine and now I'm not the only one dusting around here!
7 comments:
Sounds like you have a good thing going!
In the words of Dave Ramsey "You work...you get paid. You don't work, you don't get paid."
Glad to see your kids are learning the value of a dollar.
P.S: I would love to see a follow-up post of Sarah and all her loot. I get a kick out of what little kids like to spend their money on.
Good work! Now you need to email me your chore chart and how much the kids earn so I can start it up in my house. I keep thinking about doing it but then the thoughts of all the whining come into my head and I decide to just do things myself!
What a great thing to do! I always tell the boys if they want something I will buy half but they have to pay for the other part out of their own money or do chores around the house to earn the money needed.
That's wonderful. Good job starting them early.
great news! I hope it works. :)
And they'll appreciate the game so much more for having earned it themselves. ;)
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