A Money Lesson Learned by a 4-year-old

We live at the end of a street at the end of the neighborhood. The houses are arranged such that the wind whips violently through the back yards. On trash days the wind picks up all the trash and since we are at the end of the street/neighborhood, it dies down at our yard, depositing all manner of trash.  It's a huge chore to pick up the trash before we mow the lawn. Seeing us pick up trash, our then 3 ½-year-old son wanted to help. Seeing an opportunity, we taught him that for every piece of trash in the yard he picks up he gets a quarter.  (He does have inside chores that he does not get paid for.) 

As parents we learned that we needed to have a specific place for him to put his money. He learned to keep his money all in one place or else he would lose it. There isn’t a lot of opportunity for him to buy toys so he tends to have a pile of quarters. We went to the Lego store and he created 3 mini-figures and he had money left over after the $11 purchase.  

I wasn’t sure how much he was learning about money until one day in the car when it had been a long time since we had been to a store he said, Mom, I want X toy. Can I go home and pick up some trash?

OMGoodness.  He’s equated earning money to buying things! It didn’t even occur to him to ask me for money. I was ecstatic. 

Then the other day he was watching You Tube Kids. For about three videos in a row the kid in the video opened three different toys and played with them. NaD Jr. then said,

 

NaD Jr: Mom, he doesn’t have any money.
Mrs. NaD: What do you mean?
NaD Jr: His dad had to give him those toys.
Mrs. NaD: (Smiling) You have money. You earned it.
NaD Jr: He nodded and smiled.

 

There was such a sense of pride in his voice that he had earned money.  He felt such a sense of accomplishment. And this at 4 years old.

Now there is such a sense of pride in my voice.