EARNING, SAVING AND SPENDING

Parenting is such a joy and privilege and also about 20 million times harder than I thought it would be before I had children of my own.  I had no idea there would be so many complexities or so much work.  John and I have always wanted to instill a good work ethic into our children, because we honestly believe it is one of the things that will always serve them well in life.  Also, in many ways, it would be easy to spoil our children, and we do not want them to grow up entitled or expecting to be handed things.

As summer has landed, we realized we have a good opportunity to start giving the girls some good work experience.  Last Saturday, Lily and Bella put on "uniforms" and were so excited to head to "work."  When we got there, John had them fill out applications (write their names), and he interviewed each girl separately.




We realized that we need to give them a little more interview coaching for the future.  When John asked each of them why they wanted to work, both immediately answered, "To make money."  Children certainly are honest!  And obviously, that is one important reason why we do work, but it may not be the best to lead with.  Thankfully, we have a few years to work on the skill on interviewing.

They spent time working in the dining room with John a couple of days this week.  John taught them to say, "May I interest you in a mint or wet nap?" They also cleared trays and wiped down tables - with a lot of supervision and assistance.  It was really cute to watch, and my heart swelled with pride to see them giddy to learn.

We helped them divide up their money into tithe, savings and spending, and John even took them to the bank to open savings accounts.  It was an exciting week all the way around.  They figured out that they would be able to combine their spending money from this week and purchase the much desired Lego Frozen Ice Palace.



The girls are so excited to have a way to earn money, and I like that they are not expecting money for the work we ask them to do at home.  We've decided that doing chores at home is just part of the deal with living here.  We may do an allowance during the school year when they aren't able to go to the restaurant much, because we do want them to have money to practice with growing up.  We give them practice at lots of things in life, and practicing with money is really important to us.

We are learning as we go, and I am sure we will have to revise some things about teaching finances along the way, but this is one giant perk of owning our own business.  Bella was worn out after a long day (2 hours) at work.



And lest you grow concerned that there is all work and no play, the girls also completed a great week of swim lessons last week!



A lot of parenting really is looking for opportunities for our children to practice things we want them to be able to master as a grown up.  I'm praying we know what to help them practice as the years go on.