Money Matters

A child’s relationship with and understanding of money is comically bizarre. Pierce thinks all plastic cards (including driver’s licenses, store loyalty cards and hotel key cards) are money. When he finds a plastic card, he smiles and says, “I got money!”

Sydney has a little money jar where she puts money she finds, is given and earns. The other day it had four dollars and some change in it. She has been begging me to take her to the dollar store to buy a few things, so since she is tracked out from school and we had some errands to run while Pierce was at preschool, I told her we could take some of her money to spend. She wanted to take all four dollars and I had to explain to her that we never spend all of our money at once and certainly not in one store. So I let her take $2. As I was closing the jar, she said, “Wait. What about the taxes? How much do I need?” Good for her for remembering our last outing to spend one dollar and how we needed a little extra for taxes! So, I started to count out 14 cents for her. Again, “Wait! I want to give her more than 14 cents so I can get change.” So, back went the dime and four pennies and out came a quarter. Satisfied child, amused mother.

At the dollar store, she only found one cheap, made-in-china, guaranteed-to-break-instantly toy. So at the check-out she handed the lady $1.25 (one bill and one coin), and smiled at her maturity. When she got back 18 cents, she was thrilled and had a huge grin on her face. Five coins in exchange for one. She must have thought she was getting paid to shop! The marvels of childhood!