06.21.08
Posted in Kids and Money at 9:50 pm by CreditMom
My 14 year old’s middle school graduation is this week. I don’t know about you but I don’t even remember my middle school graduation and my guess is that’s because there really wasn’t much pomp and circumstance. Well, fast forward a few materialistic decades later and much has changed.
So what does graduation cost in 2008?
- Year Book - $30 (that’s the base price. If you personalize it add $10 - $20 more)
- Cap and Gown - $40
- DVD of the exciting graduation event - $15
- Graduation dinner for family of 5 - $200 (add more if you’re inviting Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Mary and Uncle Lou etc.)
- Graduation Gift for your child – that’s pretty discretionary starting from a $25 American Express gift card a $1400 Mac Notebook (guess the sky is the limit on that one).
- Graduation party 50 – 75 kids (if you’re the sucker that ends up making one) - $1000+.
- Gifts for graduation parties your child attends – here is the real subjective one. After much research I found that 50% of bloggers out there feel your child does NOT need to bring a gift to a graduation party if he or she is graduating as well. However the other 50% feel the opposite and they suggest gifts of either $25 gift cards or a snack for the party. So on this one, let’s say average $25 per party. My son has 4 parties so that’s $100.
- Grand total – about $1400+++
Yes, roughly $1400 to celebrate that your child passed all his classes for 3 years (was there any other option???) and didn’t send you to an early grave as he gracefully glided through puberty. I’m feeling thankful already J
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06.14.08
Posted in Kid's Responsibilities at 11:56 pm by CreditMom
It seems like every day my husband and I are constantly drilling some sort of message about financial and social responsibility into our boys’ heads. It also seems like every day they just don’t get it. They fight, they forget to clean off the table, leave their dirty clothes on the floor, totally decimate a bathroom and ask us to buy them everything they see on TV.
Well tonight was a true test. We had torrential rain and my husband was not home. Our garage flooded all the way up to the door leading into our house. My 14 year old was down the street at a friend’s house and I was home alone with my 10 year old twins. I immediately called him and he came running home. Quickly and without panicking we worked as a team. My older son assumed the lead and heavy job of making multiple trips carrying the wet vac up the driveway to empty it. My younger boys lifted up the drains and grabbed some brooms and started pushing the water outside. In less than an hour the water was gone and the drains that were previously overflowing were clear.
After we cleaned up I told each of them how proud I was. We worked as a team and every one had different and equally good ideas on how to attack the situation. Even more importantly we all listened and respected each other’s ideas - no one fought for once! So what could have been a disastrous situation ended up being a little glitch in the day.
Later on I gave them a little test. Individually, I asked each of them how much money they felt they earned to clean up the garage. My older one immediately said, “nothing”. The twins both hesitated. One of them said, “$20 but it wouldn’t be right to ask for that so I would say $10 and then he said, well, actually nothing.” The other one said, “you owe us a lot but nah, nothing.”
So what’s the moral of the story? Drilling responsibility and kindness into your children is relentless and tiring work. And most times you don’t even get any instant gratification. But tonight we reaped the benefits of our persistent efforts and I must say not only were we proud of our children but we were also proud of ourselves.
Do you have any similar stories to share about your kids? I would love to hear them.
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05.13.08
Posted in Kids and Money at 7:23 pm by CreditMom
Yesterday, my 14 year old and I were going shopping. He “needed” new sneakers. Of course the ones he “needed” were never destined for the sale rack. In fact, the ones he “needed” were full priced at $99.99. It took less than a minute for those $100 shoes to draw him in, like an addict in search of his fix. As he embraced those sneakers like a new puppy, he looked at me and said, “$100? That’s not bad.” And my response was, “$100? Are you kidding!!???”
So where is the problem here? Well, first, my son needs a job! Second, $100 isn’t much when it doesn’t come out of your own pocket! And third, children need to start understanding financial responsibility at a young age.
Even at 2 years old, a child can be rewarded for simple chores. As children get older, give them numerous responsibilities and credit them with allowance when the chores are completed. To make them even more independent, only offer allowance when the chores are completed without prompting or nagging. This comes in handy when you’re tired of hearing your own voice over and over again.
So did he get the sneakers? Yes he did, BUT he got them on the condition that half of the money came from his allowance. To put it in perspective it took him 5 weeks to earn those sneakers but as long as my child is holding up his end of the bargain I don’t mind meeting him halfway.
What do you think? Should I have met him halfway or should I have waited until he had the $100 on his own? Or, should I have just said NO to the $100 sneakers!?
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