Do It Yourself
Adding Value To Our Future
It never fails to amaze me when one of my little brothers tells me that something is ONLY $100.00. When I was growing up I had to learn the value of a dollar very early. Aside from birthdays and Christmas, I was never just given money. I worked for every cent and my father taught me how to save.
He showed me that an act as simple as picking up dropped pennies will eventually add up. For over a year I picked up change any time I could find it and stored it in a 5 gallon water jug. At the end of the year we sorted and wrapped the change.
Just from my picking up change, we were able to fund a family trip to six flags. The act of working for what you want and saving to get it has always stuck with me and I believe that we have really gotten away from teaching our children those values.
With how unstable things are in the economy we really need for our future to learn what the cost of something really is.
It is not about a stack of paper bills, but more about the time and effort put into making that money and deciding if all of that work is really worth what they are looking to purchase.
This past July, I took a cruise with my wife and her family, including her little brothers. The children had been given a daily budget of $20.00 to use however they wanted. Unfortunately on the Third day as I was passing the candy shop, the youngest brother was arguing with the cashier.
When I went in to see what the problem was, I noticed the gigantic sack of candy on the counter. It was just past noon and he had already gone over his budget.
When I stepped in he was relieved, thinking that I would just pay the difference and he could go on about his day. The look of shock on his face when I told him that I would pay the bill, only IF he repaid me with a day’s yard work, was priceless.
He pleaded that it wasn’t fair and I had to explain to him that it wasn’t fair for me to have to pay for his candy and was even less fair for him to waste the cashier’s time with the argument. After several minutes he reluctantly agreed. He had his candy and a week later I had my yard mowed.
So many of today’s youth feel that they are for some reason entitled to things that they have not worked for.
What lessons are you teaching your children to make them more aware of the real cost of an item and the fulfillment of a hard days work?
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Mariowen
December 13, 2012 at 12:56 PM
As a child, we were expected to help with chores needing done around the house and yard. There were no allowances or payment for the work we did. We did it as being a part of the family unit. We were given a roof over our heads and food for meals. Isn’t that what our parents work for? I think that youths today don’t participate in the family because they have no vested interest in it. The family doesn’t work together as a unit anymore and we suffer for it as we watch our children drift off from having emotional connections with the family and exchange that with being connected to friends – good and bad. We need to reconnect at an early age so they will always feel the bond that families used to have. Those who work together and play together, stay together.
Eric
December 13, 2012 at 2:43 PM
I intend on teaching my soon-to-be-born son these lessons exactly! Thinking about how hard my grandparents and parents worked to achieve what they have, and then thinking about my own kids and the experiences they’ll grow up with, it kind of blows my mind how far we’ve come. There’s nothing like knowing the value of hard work!
Ron
January 5, 2013 at 3:31 AM
After reading many of peoples opinion on this, mine is you can direct your child but ultimatly, and unfortunatly they will learn most of lifes lessons on their own, the main thing you have to remember is to pull and not push, meaning live by example, let them see the way you operate through your day, the good and the bad, set the example, you can sit them down and try to explain it all or yell at them tell your blue in the face but, at the teen level they more than likely won’t follow your direction unless you have a pull relationahip with them. If your convinced on pushing them there gone mentaly, any how my wife seems to do more of the yelling and comands them to do things, they do it but with much resistance, she always asks me and them why when your dad says to do something you do it and when i ask its like pulling teeth, i tell her because you pushing them and i pull them i’ll sit down with them and go over thier day expesially if i think something is wrong and i will share my experiences i had when i was there age, sometimes i had it good i would work for my dad to get gas money and the like but there were times i was living on Mac and Cheese any how i want my kids to want to be around me not the opposite, remember that your learning too, get them to pray every day and night if possible, I started years ago writing out a prayer focusing on the thankfulness side not the asking side, and putting it on their seat on the way to school every morning. Then i tell them that i have a journal, which i do and write out how i would like my life to be and then meditate and pray about these things day and night knowing that God loves me and that I love Him and trust Him with all my heart, i started writing the prarers out when they were in fourth and fifth grade now thier in seventh and eighth and they hop in the van and the first thing they do is grab the prayer list, not every single day but most of the time so somethings you can get them to grow on things but i bet they will remember reading those thankful prayers all thier lives, so remember my main point is to pull not push, i want my kids to want to stay at home or come and visit as they please, duing highschool and then college, so remeber to pull them towards you, and to not push them away were once they graduate higjschool their out of here, for me one of the most important things is to have God in their lives, then i know at least they will have guidence, I have Muscular Dystrophy so i may be gone soon who knows? But I love my kids and my wife and I always want them to be a part of me so that’s my two cents. RBH
CaptTurbo
December 13, 2012 at 6:13 PM
“So many of today’s youth feel that they are for some reason entitled to things that they have not worked for.”
That’s where tomorrow’s democrats come from.
Joel
December 17, 2012 at 3:46 AM
Sadly, you are correct in stating that these kids who are raised with a sense of entitlement are conditioned to become tomorrow’s DemoBrats.
Parents, please love your kids, family, community and country enough to homeschool your kids. The Bible gives YOU this charge, not the government.
mark
December 14, 2012 at 2:32 AM
As a kid my father told us our allowance was that he allowed us to make as much money as we could,We had eight kids and my dad made a hundred dollars a week. But and the big but is that we had a big home and made most everything ourselves .My uncle had a farm and we helped with that . I learned very early that if I wanted something I had to figgure out a way to earn it .All eight of us put ourselves through college and every one of us is sucessful. lessons well learned
Donna
December 14, 2012 at 3:52 AM
I taught my daughter the principles of frugalness. I was such a frugal mother raising my kid, she went the opposite direction when she left home. Teaching doesn’t always work, but now she is in debt up to her ears and working 60 hours a week to pay her debts, I think my principles I taught my daughter have come back to bite her.
Johnny B
December 16, 2012 at 5:16 AM
Economics is taught in many ways, for some it’s just going down to the welfare office and signing up for “their” check. For me, the middle of 11 kids, I was running a blueprint machine at 11,(when I wasn’t in school), earning 1.25 an hour, minimum wage, but when my siblings began stealing from me I left home at 12 and a half, lived where I could find work, looked 18, and they didn’t care on some jobs. I look forward for the zombie that crosses my path. JBG
kunquoda
December 19, 2012 at 4:05 AM
As a great grandmother, I have seen it go from bad to worse. I taught my daughters the value of a dollar by making them do certain things around the house in addition to their everyday chores. I couldn’t afford to give them money just for being cute. They were expected to make their beds every morning and each would take turns on KP ( kitchen patrol)for a week at a time. This was because they lived in the house so they were expected to help keep it clean. If they did extra things that wasn’t typically their responsibility, I would give them a couple dollars or give them a privilege that they would not normally get. A trip to the mall, a movie or an over night stay with a friend. Today they are bother responsible adults. However when they had children, they were better off financially than I was so they tended to be more giving. Now, my grandchildren are raising their children totally different. My great grandchildren have every toy known to man, a closet full of clothes and no values.
D. Zimmerman
December 22, 2012 at 11:55 PM
Boy….do I hear ya!
patti
December 26, 2012 at 9:20 AM
Back in the early 1950’s when I was about 7yrs old. My Dad came accross a pair of old wool socks in grandma’s cedar chest. He tossed them on my lap and said “How much are these socks worth?” How would I know? He kept quizing me until I asked him what they were worth. I was not prepared for “the story of wool socks”. My grandparents were born about the end of the civil war. They lived and my Dad’s early years were just about like “Little house on the praire”. Only in SW Michigan. I was told how Grandpa had raised the sheep, sheared the sheep. Then Grandma took over. I do not remember all the steps of cleaning, carding, washing(?), spinning and knitting. But somewhere in that process Granma went to the woods and gathered what she needed to dye the wool too. So how many hours went into that pair of socks? And how much were they worth? I do not know, but I’m sure someone out there is still doing all of the above. Dad’s answer was “They were worth a whole lot when you were lucky if you had two pairs of any kind of socks”. I still have that exact pair of socks, they were the last pair Grandma made. Almost every time I buy a new pair, I think about that time with my Dad. It was stories like “the wool socks” that helped me understand the cost of time, labor, and how people lived before “TV”. LOL my folks went thru the depression. They were allways ready for any emergency. I look at my great nices and nephews. They do not have a clue. They would starve without a microwave and take out. They are now so far removed from the farm they do not know where food comes from!
Tessa
January 17, 2013 at 10:55 AM
I taught my daughter all the ways to be frugal and live on a budget. Worked with her on the website crown.org (lots of free tools). Sadly she married a spender and a gambler. I understand why, he dotes on her and loves her in ways her father never did. Nuff said, she never comes to church without a Starbucks cup in her hand, this last Sunday she had her brother’s oldest in tow and the 11 year old had a Starbuck’s cup in her hand. I asked the 11 year old, you know what they call regular Starbuck’s buyers? Renter’s! Huh, oh funny grandma. Not funny my dear, think about it and see with your own eyes if there is any truth in it. I made her think, at least for a few minutes.
Even though my son is ultra conservative (more so than his sister) the influences of the world on his children are very damaging. Guess this calls for much more prayer!