The Bank of Mom and Dad

Kids and money - it's another one of those areas where we, as parents, want to pass along all our knowledge as quickly and as easily as possible.  We do the allowance thing.  And chores.  We show them how much things cost and make them save for big items.  We take them shopping and let them pay for things themselves.  But I guess we forgot to tell the little guy "don't take your money to school" because he did.  The whole $161 dollars from the last few months of allowance, Christmas, and birthday money.  I'm still not sure what he was thinking taking it all to school but luckily his teacher caught it pretty early in the day and gave me a call.  I couldn't run up to the school right then but asked her to give it to Kaitlyn and knew my super-responsible child would get it back home safely.  However, I still spent much of the day shaking my head at the thought of my child taking all of his money to school and wondering what to do about it.

I have been thinking about taking the kids to open savings accounts at the bank, but right now they are currently working hard to earn enough money to cooperatively buy themselves an Ipad.  They even went online and looked up the price for one all by themselves.  It's kind of fun to see them pull their money out and sit down and count it all then figure out how much more they need.  I really hate to take all that away from them - the fun of counting the money and holding it in their hands.  And I don't want to undo any of their hopes/expectations by declaring that we are putting X amount in the bank and that it can't be used toward the tablet.   It's too late in the game for that, right?  Then inspiration struck - why not create our own little savings account for them here at home?

 

So we created the Bank of Mom and Dad.  I hunted up some old checkbook registers and a couple of manila envelopes then printed out labels to make them look more official.  The check registers will be for the kids to track their deposits and withdrawals.  The envelopes are for me to use while I keep the cash safe (I also put another copy of the check registers in there - you know, just in case).  The only rule I have so far is that they cannot hang onto any more than $20 in their own wallets.  The rest needs to be deposited in our "bank" until they are ready to buy something, then they can withdraw the cash just before we head to the store.  The rest will evolve as we go.  I'm sure at some point we will all sit down and discuss long term savings and setting up real bank accounts.  For now, I'm just relieved I won't have to worry about the little guy deciding he wants to lose all his cash at the park next time.

PS - it is really warm this week and Tyler put on a pair of shorts today for the first time this year.  And what did we find in the pocket?  Nine dollars!  Ahahahaha...