My Daughter is a Changeist

So we are working really hard to raise our kids with an open mind about everything - don't judge - consider all angles of the people that you encounter in life - the situations you find yourself in - and take each gift you receive as an opportunity.............so how did SuperStar become a Changeist!?!

Do you wonder what a changeist is? Well............at school the student council are selling Boo Grams. Remember them? Your school probably had something similar. It is early morning at our house during Boo Gram sales. SuperStar says, "I need $3.00 so I can buy some Boo Grams for my friends".

Boo Grams cost $.25 each - this means that there are 12 friends who will be receiving them from her. Note that she has TOLD me she NEEDS the money. One of the things we are very consciously (although we do tend to forget) trying to teach the kiddo's is that we aren't going to just Hand Over money - and also the much needed concept of NEED vs WANT. So many of thier NEEDS are really WANTS. Boo Gram money is a WANT. So I suggested that she use her allowance for the purchase.

"No, they won't take a five dollar bill. They only want change." was the response.

"Well you could give me your five and then I will give you change." I told her.

"Well actually if you could just give me quarters then it will be better." she smiled.

I am seeing where this is going. This money is being seen as inconsequential because it is not a BILL - it is simply change. So I asked her, "Buying Boo Grams is not something you have to have, so you will need to earn the money for it - or - if I give you three dollars in change what will you do to earn it?"

"Why would I need to earn change?" she was no longer smiling and she had a look like people throw change away........work for it? Seriously?! And then we worked out an agreement - she really wanted to buy all 12 of her friends Boo Grams. She did an extra chore that night, sweeping the pine off the back porch, and I would give her three dollars in change. Everyone was happy.

Then I began counting out the change from the pink ceramic baby foot planter that the people who lived here before us left. Hey, what else was I going to do with a planter like that? It had change collector all over it. I counted out eight quarters and ten dimes. A total of $3.00. SuperStar looked at it and said, "Ah I don't want the dimes."
"Why not? They are change and make a full dollar." I was clearly confused.

"My friends will see them." and she began to gather up the quarters.

"Why does it matter if they see the dimes? They are valid money." still confused.

Looking at me like I was a real goof she said, "Well if we don't have any more quarters then I will just take these to buy Boo Grams." and she started to pocket the quarters - she was not taking the dimes.

"But that means that four of your friends won't get Boo Grams. You are telling me that you dislike using dimes in public so much that you would cut four of your friends off of your list to receive Boo Grams?" what in the world was I missing? How totally not cool am I these days?

Her response was simply, "Yes."

My daughter is a Changeist. She hates small currency - pennies, nikels and dimes - for no apparent reason other then it seems to make her feel as though others will look at her using this form of payment and think we are out of money and have to use small change. She explained this in the slightly extended version of our conversation. I repeated this to a friend later in the day........thinking they would (like me) roll their eyes at the prejudice against small change - but I was surprised because they didn't! The friend also hates using small change in public - or even real money - instead preferring a debit card or credit card - because other people might think they are on a budget. Realy? What is wrong with budgets? Aren't we all on a budget these days? I thought saying "oh that doesn't fit our budget" is the new cool thing to say. She even offered up that maybe SuperStar is putting together that we give away our small change to homeless people who ask on the streets and if she uses change people will think she is poor. Really?! I hate those debit card commercials where the world stops and makes the person paying by check or cash look like an idiot.

So now we have a new goal -
1) Teach the kids to manage their money
2) Teach the difference between a NEED and a WANT
3) Teach the children to embrace CHANGE!