First financial discussion with my 2 year old

[cute fuzzy bunny]

The words are coming pretty fast these days. We had this interesting conversation yesterday. He knows what "money" is, and if he isnt allowed to hand over the cash or cards, its good for a small tantrum.

So he sees a candy machine and pointing says "Da da! Money!"

Me: "Da da has no money. All gone"

Leery face

Gabe: "MONEY!"

Me: "No money, used it all up"

Grampa: "Da da has money...Da da's lying..." (gee, thanks dad...)

Gabe: "I knnnowwwww!"

Here we go...

[FinanceDude]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cute fuzzy bunny The words are coming pretty fast these days. We had this interesting conversation yesterday. He knows what "money" is, and if he isnt allowed to hand over the cash or cards, its good for a small tantrum. So he sees a candy machine and pointing says "Da da! Money!" Me: "Da da has no money. All gone" Leery face Gabe: "MONEY!" Me: "No money, used it all up" Grampa: "Da da has money...Da da's lying..." (gee, thanks dad...) Gabe: "I knnnowwwww!" Here we go...

[REWahoo]

Sorry to tell you, but it gets much worse before it gets better.

Just wait until he tells you you're a fool for paying off your mortgage early, not buying a variable annuity, and a laptop with an AMD chip and...

[justin]

Do what I do. Tell him all you got is 100's and credit cards. No quarters for the gumball machine.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Doesnt work. He just shoves his hand in my pocket and grabs a handful of change.

REW...I think i'm going to mortgage my house and buy a nice sempron laptop and a variable annuity with the remainder. When that explodes, i'll take social security late to save myself.

Actually my biggest problem right now isnt begging for money (or popsicles or pepsi), its noticing when he takes food out of the freezer and brings it upstairs to hide in his closet.

"Honey...wheres that frozen cod I bought last week...and...whats that SMELL in Gabes room?"

I thought it was just a smelly diaper genie...

[Moemg]

My So's grandson used to grab his parents toothbrushes and rinse them in the toilet and the best part is they were never sure when he did this .

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Oh. Goodie. He loves to play with our toothbrushes.

So far nothing tossed in the toilet.

That we know of.

[Zipper]

Perfect age to show who is the adult and who is the kid.

The simple answer is a one time firm NO!

End of conversation.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Yeah you're right. He says that to me all the time.

I'm not entirely sure who's the boss around here, but I'm fairly sure I dont even crack the top 3.

[justin]

Just be glad Gabe hasn't learned the phrases "Daddy white trash" and "Daddy has a girlfriend". My 2 year old had my wife wondering about that last phrase...

I wish I knew where my daughter learns this stuff from... must be the media, violent movies, video games, and tv shows.

[bosco]

By the time my kid was 4, the "no money" argument had already become more abstract. It went:

me: "can't buy that. out of money"

Odin: "write a check"

me: "no funds in the account."

Odin: "use the credit card."

now he had maneuvered me down to the real issue: I won't/don't want to buy it because of a perception that it is not the right purchase at the moment for whatever more abstract reason.

Kids learn pretty quickly that "I don't have the money" is bs, at least for most of the things they are asking for. All part of growing up, I guess.

ah....raising kids. Wish I could say the money lessons are over once they are in their 20s.

We recently had a practical lesson on the financial value of health insurance. Odin was in eastern Russia on a university exchange. He didn't stop to consider that when he withdrew at the beginning of the second semester to teach English in the far eastern north, that his insurance disappeared. So his Christmas present was health insurance until he returns in August.

7 days later, in the pursuit, of all things, of black market skis, he gets ambushed in a back alley (I guess when you are 6'-7" you get a false sense of security about going into a back alley with a stranger) and beat up by 3 hooligans. A week in the hospital. $8,700 bill. Insurance covers $6,700 of it after the deductible and copay.

the lessons of youth....

[bright eyed]

my dad got DD a cheap plastic see-thru piggy bank, now DD is the best change collector around - she says, "look! i found a coin!" she doesn't know the difference between the little brown ones and the bigger silver ones...it's cute. I have 5 coins!

must run in the family. i recall my youngest sister was caught hoarding cash and change (i think when she was like 3 or 4) under the bathroom sink?

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cute fuzzy bunny The words are coming pretty fast these days. We had this interesting conversation yesterday. He knows what "money" is, and if he isnt allowed to hand over the cash or cards, its good for a small tantrum. So he sees a candy machine and pointing says "Da da! Money!" Me: "Da da has no money. All gone" Leery face Gabe: "MONEY!" Me: "No money, used it all up" Grampa: "Da da has money...Da da's lying..." (gee, thanks dad...) Gabe: "I knnnowwwww!" Here we go...

Sounds like you need a new dad. Or at least he needs to pick up the tab for making comments like that.

As for Gabe's discretionary spending, why should you be the bad guy? "Sorry, we don't have any more money in the budget for candy. We have to use this money to pay for food and the house and the cars and the electricity. We'll have money next week for one piece of candy."

Or "We're going to the store, and if you behave and follow the rules then you can have ONE SPECIAL TREAT. If you don't behave and follow the rules then we're just going to go home." Unfortunately you'll have to be ready to have that bluff called a couple times.

But if he sees money as a tool instead of a food source, then maybe he's ready for an allowance-- maybe even a whole 50 cents a week!

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Oh dad popped for the candy. And a soda out of the machine at the park later. Now he's on the hook! Next day at the park, he ran so fast to the coke machine that he fell and skinned a knee. Which didnt even slow him down from yelling "Gunka! Money! Coke! More!" (yes, my dad will be known as 'gunka', one of gabes first actual words, for the rest of his life). Later on, when he noticed he had a skinned knee, one of the first sympathy bargaining sessions began. "Gunka...owwie...ow! More coke!"

I dont have any problem managing the little guy. When he gets old enough to try to talk me into stuff, he'll get to learn about justifications and budgetary tradeoffs.

I didnt manage 50 weasels employees and a $40-50 million dollar expense budget all those years for nothin'...

[justin]

So you'd say you have a coke-addled kid? Sounds like he's addicted to that stuff. I'd blame the media if I were you.

[bright eyed]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cute fuzzy bunny I didnt manage 50 weasels employees and a $40-50 million dollar expense budget all those years for nothin'...

hehe he, be glad you didn't get a little girl with puppy dog eyes, saying 'daaaddy, pleeeeaase!' - whether they are 4 or 14 it doesn't really change!

and that management experience might just be enough to get you thru.

another rule of parenting - don't start what you don't want to repeat - ie the coke machine, gumball machines, cookie before breakfast - new habits die hard!

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I agree with Justin...the media is responsible for everything!

I'm very familiar with not starting something I dont want to repeat. My dad unfortunately likes to act spontaneously without a lot of thought about the consequences. I'm fairly sure its intentional.

[bright eyed]

ooooh! i thought you were the dad in the dad reference...reading too fast...

yes, grandparents are quite skilled at parenting sabotage.

yesterday my mom told me i shouldn't be so stern w/ my daughter - it kills them to see me discipline them. My mom will immediately open her arms and comfort poor sad puppy dog eyes.

this from the woman who spanked me on a daily basis, and was also known to throw random objects our way - like shoes or whatever was in the vicinity!

[Arif]

Quote:

Just be glad Gabe hasn't learned the phrases "Daddy white trash" and "Daddy has a girlfriend". My 2 year old had my wife wondering about that last phrase... I wish I knew where my daughter learns this stuff from... must be the media, violent movies, video games, and tv shows.

Sounds familiar. My son recently told my wife, "Daddy drives in the what'supcar and the girls say hi." My wife gave me a strange look and I just returned a

Still haven't found that what'supcar though.

[dgalbraith100]

I have a 4 year old who has been collecting change since he was about 2, he knows money is useful, but still doesn't really have a concept of how much $ is needed to buy things. He did save up about $3 worth of change and went to target and bought a truck (we helped with about $10 extra, but he had been saving for months and that was all he talked about was buying that truck). Kinda cute. Of course now he doesn't play with it unless his younger sister gets her hands on it.. then its his truck and he wants to play with it for the next 2 minutes.

Anytime we are at a store and he starts "I want that", we say, "do you have your money?" (usually he didn't bring it to the store) "well, next time bring your money"... ends that conversation. If he has his money with him we check to see if its enough (usually its not, and that ends the conversation).

If it is, we talk about the things he is saving his money for... if he still wants whatever it is we would probably let him buy it. So far he's never gotten that far. He has a hard time parting with his money, he was unhappy when he found out he had to trade his money for the truck. So now he mostly saves it, and almost never spends. He likes to talk about how much money he has... I have 2 nickles. I have 10 dimes, I have X whatevers. I am sure this will change soon... but for the moment I'll take it.

Laters,
-d.