Often times I find myself struggling, trying to figure out how to teach the value of money to kids these days ? There is so much abundance - too many pencils, erasers, toys, electronic devices, etc .. that I feel they don't understand that all these cost money and that parents are working hard for that. They just take everything for granted. If something breaks or gets lost, they are very quick to say that its OK, we will buy new one.
Here is another example .. Kavya buys lunch from school twice a week - Mondays when they have PBJ and Thursdays when they have cheese pizza. The other days they usually don't have good vegetarian choices. The lunch costs about 3$. The other days I give her lunch from home. One or two times a week, I give her indian food like roti-shaak burrito .. and she definitely prefers the junk pizza, etc over it. This week, they had grilled cheese on Friday in the menu. So, she wanted to buy lunch from school on Friday too. I didn't want her to get into a habit of buying from school whenever they had her favorite food. So, I told her that you can buy twice a week. If you want to buy on Friday, you take lunch from home on Thursday (instead of pizza at school). However, she wanted both. So, I explained her in terms of money. I told her that we spend $6 every week for your lunch from school. So, you have to manage within that. That is your budget. She was quick to respond that if she buys on Friday too, it will be "only" $9 for that week and that is not too much. Gaurav and I struggled for a few mins after that to explain her that $9 is too much .. It will take her over an hour of hard work to earn that. Even then, I don't think she got it. ** Sigh **
Here is another example .. Kavya buys lunch from school twice a week - Mondays when they have PBJ and Thursdays when they have cheese pizza. The other days they usually don't have good vegetarian choices. The lunch costs about 3$. The other days I give her lunch from home. One or two times a week, I give her indian food like roti-shaak burrito .. and she definitely prefers the junk pizza, etc over it. This week, they had grilled cheese on Friday in the menu. So, she wanted to buy lunch from school on Friday too. I didn't want her to get into a habit of buying from school whenever they had her favorite food. So, I told her that you can buy twice a week. If you want to buy on Friday, you take lunch from home on Thursday (instead of pizza at school). However, she wanted both. So, I explained her in terms of money. I told her that we spend $6 every week for your lunch from school. So, you have to manage within that. That is your budget. She was quick to respond that if she buys on Friday too, it will be "only" $9 for that week and that is not too much. Gaurav and I struggled for a few mins after that to explain her that $9 is too much .. It will take her over an hour of hard work to earn that. Even then, I don't think she got it. ** Sigh **
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