Collin's friends gave him a GeoTrax DVD that they had 2 of and he watches it all the time. Now he tells me every day that he wants to buy some GeoTrax toys. It's not his birthday and Christmas is still far away, I don't feel the need to run out and buy him toys every time he asks for a new one. He has more than enough already. Today he asked me if we could go to the store to buy some money. First of all, I explained, you don't buy money, you work to earn it. That's why Mommy goes to work every day and you go to daycare. Second, why do you need money? I should have known what was coming...To buy some GeoTrax. Its beginning to get a bit out of hand so I finally said "If you clean up all of your toys, I will give you a dollar and you can save up some money to buy some GeoTrax." His toys were all put away in no time flat and then he was there bugging me for his dollar. He was very proud of it too. When Daddy got home he said "Look Daddy, I have a dollar!" When Tim asked how he got it, Collin explained that I gave it to him for cleaning up his toys. Here's where I need a little advice. Tim feels that Collin is too young (he's only 3) to be "earning" money and I don't disagree with him. He also doesn't think we should pay him for something we expect him to do anyway. I'm not crazy about the idea either. On the other hand, I feel like I need to teach him that money isn't just handed to you, you have to work for it. And more importantly, you have to save it to get the things you want. You don't just run out and buy every little thing that strikes your fancy, and Mommy and Daddy aren't going to buy you every little thing you want either.
At some point in the future I expect to give my children an allowance so that they learn to manage money but I'm don't want to tie it to chores exclusively, which totally contradicts what I just said about having to earn money, I know. My plan is to give them a set amount that they can increase by doing extra things over and above whatever their assigned chores may be. By the time they are old enough for an allowance, they will need to learn that if you spend all of your money on a CD (ha, I probably should have said itunes downloads-who buys cd's anymore), you won't have enough money to go to the movies. Is he too young to give "chores" to now? They would be things like putting his own clothes on and brushing his teeth by himself and maybe pulling his sheets up on his bed (not actually making it). When do you start these things? I remember at various points in time my sister and I were assigned chores as kids but it always led to a huge fight of some sort, mostly because we were lazy brats and didn't want to do chores. Can I avoid that if I start really early? I know its way too soon to give an allowance but when do you start and how do you handle the "I want's"?
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When Shaina and I started living together, Kylan was 4 and had a terrible case of the "I wants". We implemented a system with gold plastic coins and every time he performed a behavior we wanted to re-enforce, he got a gold coin. If he performed a behavior we disliked, we took coins away. We had a bunch of toys with assigned coin values that he could then earn at different price levels. It taught him that things aren't free, modified his behavior, and also taught him to save (The second toy he "bought" was a 200 coin oy when he would earn between 10 and 15 coins a day).
Also, I know I offer you a lot of help, but here you could be helping me out. I have two huge (2'x2'x3') moving boxes in my basement that are full of nothing but Geo-Trax. Kylan has kind of outgrown them, but I can't bring myself to throw them away. We were going to sell them in a yard sale, but I have no problem giving them to you and then you can give them to Collin as you see fit. FYI, when I had them set up in my house Hawaii, the full track covered the floor in my garage, so there really are a ton. Just let me know, I can drop them on your mom and dad's stoop.
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