Since
our 7-year old nephew was visiting, who is extremely fond of video games like
many kids his age, we decided to take him to a nearby mall on one of the
weekends. It has a gaming zone. He enjoyed quite a lot there.
The
next day I overheard this conversation between him and his grandmother, my
mother-in-law (MIL).
Nephew:
I really had a good time yesterday.
MIL:
Really? Do you know how much it cost?
Nephew:
How much?
MIL:
500 rupees!
Nephew:
That’s it?
MIL:
So what do you think, you should have spent 1000 rupees?
This
is a very regular conversation. But it got me thinking. Is it that in our
enthusiasm to provide everything to our kids, we are forgetting to instill the
value of money in them?
Do you
remember how buying clothes used to be an annual or bi-annual indulgence ‘in
our times’? Consider now. We buy clothes whenever we feel like, even when we
have not thought of buying, we sometimes buy if we like something. Same goes
for toys and books and everything else. And kiddie stuff is expensive these
days. We buy it because we want to give the best to our kids. So, there are
cupboards full of clothes, there are toys to fill an entire room and all sorts
of books, and what not!
There
has to be a middle path in which we do not go overboard while also provide our
kids with the best in everything. Well, it is not that I have discovered the
perfect way to accomplish that but there are few things which I have or would
like to implement in teaching value of money to my son (almost 2 year old now):
- When
we go shopping, we must have a list; and we must stick to it. Most of the time
when we go to malls, we invariably end up buying something or the other. We
have to resist that. Personally, with a toddler, these days we don’t loiter
around. We discuss where all will we be going and go to only those stores. But
yes, when we go to supermarkets, though we always have the list, I seem to
remember a lot of things which are not in the list. I am the guilty one
usually. But I am learning.
- Most
importantly, we have to be conscious about what we say about money (which is
actually applicable for everything not just money) in front of the kids. Are we
saying a 200-300 rupees toy is cheap? Are we buying block sets which cost few
thousands, on a whim? Are we exhibiting similar trend in our own things -
changing mobile phones frequently, buying expensive gadgets too often, ordering
food from
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| Image courtesy: ussparenting.com |
outside every other day?
- We
must also explain when we buy expensive stuff why we are buying it and that we
think it is expensive. In fact, we must explain how money ‘works’ to our kids
at the earliest.
- We
should encourage the good-old habit of recycling and reusing. My son, in his
enthusiasm, had torn apart quite a few of his board books. The first thought
that came to my mind was buying him new ones, but I discarded the idea promptly
realizing what lesson he would learn from this. So, I asked my husband to
repair all of them, and my son continues to ‘read’ from them.
- Be
judicious in shopping for clothes. I have not shopped for his clothes at malls
except for his first birthday. That too was on discount. The thing is if you
visit a branded store, all clothes look so cute, one ends up buying more than
necessary. So, we visit small, nearby stores for his cloth requirements. And I
never buy too many because they outgrow very fast.
- I
think we should take our kids to parks / museums / zoos more than Malls. First
of all, it protects them from getting sucked into the mall culture
(eating-shopping-playing) and offers more learning opportunities.
- My
only problem area is books. I am passionate about books and buy a lot of them. I
had decided to join a library and inculcate this habit in my son too.
Well, that’s the plan so far!
Any suggestions?
I am
discovering, with every passing day, that parenthood is a huge learning
experience. Even my parents could not teach me things which I am learning
because of my child J
