On the dole...

Last week, in an attempt to begin the long process of teaching better financial responsibility to our children than we have kept ourselves, I explained to Peanut that he would begin earning money for each sticker he gets on his chore chart. I labeled a glass jar with his name, and carefully dropped in twenty-two pennies - one for every star on the chart up to that point. His interest was, shall we say, mild, until I explained that with one of these pennies he could buy a lollipop at the ice cream parlor we occasionally visit. Then he wanted to go right then, carrying the full jar.

Still, I wasn't sure how much of it he really understood, and decided he would figure it out as we went along. Certainly it did not affect his enthusiasm for doing his chores, although he doesn't resist them - he just doesn't remember, and must be walked through each task every day. Then half the time he forgets that he's owed a sticker and penny. It just doesn't seem to enter his mind. Maybe I should be happy he's not mercenary, rather than baffled by his lack of motivation.

However, perhaps I underestimated him. A few days later I glanced at his money jar on his dresser, and behold: it held many more pennies than those I had put in, along with a generous smattering of nickels, dimes, and a crumpled dollar bill. I picked it up and showed it to him. "Where did all this money come from?"

He looked at it blankly - not in a deceptive maneuver, but because this is the type of question he does not comprehend or lacks the communication skill to answer. Realizing this, I tried again. "Did you put all these coins in here?"

"Uh-huh," he answered mildly, oblivious to any wrongdoing on his part. The jar was for money, wasn't it? Money goes in the jar. So any money lying around, in his mind, should go in the jar. I have no idea where he even found it, although given his propensity to watch the clothes in the washing machine, probably from my laundry room stash. (We have a jar in there, where I put any coins and bills found on the bottom of the washer or dryer - at the end of the year we use it for our Operation Christmas Child boxes; fun to see how much accumulates.)

I removed the dollar and the silver, after a reminder about what the jar was for, and that he may not take money for which he did no work.

Come to think of it...but no, I won't make snarky political jokes.