Last night we reached a whole new level of amazement. This week, Julie and I have started a new venture with our kids - they get a nickel for helping out around the house with the daily necessities like making the bed, tidying the aforementioned play room. There is a sticker chart now adorning their bedroom wall and each night they recount the activities they have done to be good helpers. We are trying not to use the word 'chores' because it has such negative connotations and 'child labor' might get us arrested - so helping around the house it is.
Well, last night was payment night - we were late by a couple of days due to a lack of nickels - and Cara sat with three little jars in front of her. The first jar was for the Church, the second was for Savings and the third was for Spending. Our plan is that on 'pay-day' we will begin to teach them now how to handle their money so when they get to our age they might be better than we are at it.
$2.70 was placed in front of Cara in nickels (did I mention child labor?) and Julie began to explain that 10% immediately goes to the Church, 20% immediately goes to Savings and the rest does not go to Spending - it goes in a pile from which Cara can decide which of the three jars it goes to. Julie and I sat there as the wheels were turning in Cara's little mind and she reached out, grabbed a handful of her coins and poured them into the Church jar. Julie asked Cara if she realized that once the money went in the jar she couldn't take it back out again, and that if she took Emma to the store to spend some of her money and Cara could only spend what was in her 'Spending' jar. My little 5 year old never skipped a beat and looking at her mom said, "I want all this to go to Haiti. I dont need to buy anything this week. I have enough. Can I give it all to Haiti?"
My heart melted. My wife and I looked at each other across the kitchen table and were nearly overcome that here our little angel was old enough to realize that she is blessed and that there are children in the world who have nothing, and whatever she could give to help them out, she wanted to do.
Wow!
Moments later, our little one came into the kitchen, she had been in another room and hadn't been a part of the previous discussion with Cara. It was time to settle our account with her too. She had been equally as busy and had earned the grand total of $2.65. Once again, three jars were set out with Church, Savings and Spending on them. The pile of nickels was laid out in front of Emma and the same explanation given. Julie counted out 10% for Church, 20% for savings and the remaining pile was once again hers to decide over. She looked at the nickels in front of her and then looked at her mom. She reached out her hand, grabbed a handful of nickels and said, "I want to give this to the homeless people, where is the 'homeless people' jar?" Once again Julie explained that once she had given it away, she couldn't get it back and if we went to the store for Cara to spend her money then Emma would not have anything to spend. "That's ok mom, I want to give it all to the homeless people, which jar does it go in?"
My wife and I sat with 6 little glass jars in front of us, 3 for Cara and three for Emma. Two jars marked 'Savings' had approximately 50c in them, two jars marked 'Church' had approximately $2.20 in them and two jars marked 'Spending' were empty. My girls may not be good at cleaning up their rooms, but I will trade that for the rest of their days if they continue to live with generous spirits that see the need that others have as far superior to any need they may have.
I love my kids, and I love my wife for teaching and modeling these principles so well. After all, the girls had to learn this from somewhere.
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