Personal finance principles...applied to child rearing

As I finished up another tax season of working much more than I really like to, I was thinking about some personal finance principles that I teach.  Here are some of them applied to child rearing.

1 - Start the saving habits now. Don't wait until you have a lot of money.
It would be so easy to get  a lot of work done if I ignored my children. It would be so easy to say "I'll play games with them when I'm not so busy" or "I'll start taking them on walks once tax season is over". It's not true.  Life doesn't really get less busy.  We always seem to find things to occupy our time. If I don't get in the habit of making my children a priority and finding time to play with them even when I'm busy, it's not going to happen. Ever.

2 - It's never too early to start.
Just like the principle of compound interest, it's never too early to invest in teaching your children. If you start when they're young, it's so much easier than trying to teach them something when they're 13 and don't really want to listen to Mom and Dad.  Not that 3 year olds want to listen that much more, but at least you have a few more opportunities.

3 - Even a little bit makes a difference.
Sometimes, even just the little things we do with our children make a difference. Five minutes spent coloring with my child, or 30 minutes on a "date" with a child may seem like a little thing, but sometimes it ends up being something a child remembers and brings up over and over again.

A good reminder to myself that a true principle is a true principle regardless of what subject it is applied to.

Imperfection and Grace

No mother is perfect.  Not you. Not the neighbor who seems to have it all pulled together.  Not the grandmother who seems to have raised 10 perfectly sane children. Not the author of the book who has all the answers as to how to raise perfect children. But, through the grace of God, I can be made perfect.  Not immediately. Not easily. But I can try. And repent. And try again.  And plead with God for his help. And eventually get there.

"But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you." (1 Peter 5:10)

At this Easter time, I thank God for his grace and for the atonement of Jesus Christ which helps to strengthen, stablish and settle me as a mother and as a child of God. 

Kid Musings #1

My children are fascinated by this sign on the wall outside the library elevator.

Not being able to read themselves, they always ask me to read the sign for them.  Their next question: "If there's a fire on the stairs, why do you want to use the stairs instead of the elevator?"
Good question.

I hate chore charts

I hate chore charts.  I don't necessarily hate doing chores, but for some reason I don't like little charts that track whether or not chores have been done.  I have chore charts for my kids.  It's a little grid I print off the computer that has about 5 chores and a square to put a sticker on for each day of the week. It doesn't work.  My kids will beg me: "Print our chore charts out!" and I'll try again.  Mondays usually are full of stickers of the chart.  Tuesday has about half that.  It starts to disappear after Wednesday.  We'll do this for a week or two before I just get tired of nagging my children to do their chores, and they don't really care whether they get a sticker or not.  So the charts will disappear for a week or two at a time.  It doesn't affect whether or not they're supposed to do their chores, but I stop tracking it.  I guess it's laziness on my part, but if they don't care, I don't care either.  I guess I need to find a better system for making sure they do their chores.  Any suggestions?

Throwup

Conversation at my house this morning:
4yo "You know that yellow stuff that you get in your mouth? That's kind of yucky?"
Me "You mean throwup?"
4yo "Yeah.  I had that on my bed last night."
Me "You threwup last night?"
4yo "Yeah. It's on my blanket. And my bed."
Me "You need to come get me when you throw up."
4yo "OK."
2 minutes later...
4yo to 6yo and 2yo "Hey, you guys, do you want to come see?"
6yo "Yeah!"
2yo "Wait for me!"

I should be grateful they don't throw up very often, so it's a novelty.  If they're that excited about it, though, I'm thinking I might have them clean it up.  That might make it lose some of the novelty.  Certainly works for me.

Working overtime

I've decided that being a working mom, I'm always working overtime.  You know those feelings you have when you're working overtime. Those feelings of "I'm just too tired to be working right now, but I know I have to get it done." Or the feelings of "Everyone else is asleep or doing something fun. Why am I still working?" I remember working full-time (plus) during tax season, going home for dinner, and then coming back to work to settle in for the night.  I'd come back feeling resigned to work, but also having a complete focus on working as efficiently as possible so that I didn't have to stay too late before coming back the next morning.

That's kind of the way it is every time I work now. I may only work a few hours a week, but when the kids go to bed and I start working, I have to get in that mode and work as efficiently as possible regardless of how exhausted I may be. This holds true during my little hour of quiet time during the day when I try to return phone calls and emails and start on projects that aren't too big. Not fun.

Luckily, some of my children are getting old enough to somewhat understand what is going on.  My 6 year old came into the kitchen where my computer is, after quiet time, put her arm around me, and said "I know you have to work a lot Mom, because it's tax season". If only I'd had understanding like that when I was working full-time and overtime!

The Joy of Aunthood

I love being an aunt! Don't get me wrong. I really love being a mom, too.  But, I've been an aunt a lot longer than I've been a mom.  I love that before I got married, when I was "the single one" in the family, I got to travel all over the country and spend time with my nieces & nephews (and their parents).  I love being called Aunt Christie almost as much as I love being called Mom.  I always heard that to be successful, a child needs the influence of an adult in their life outside of their parents.  I figure that's what aunts and uncles are for.  I take almost as much pride in the accomplishments of my nieces and nephews as I do my own children.  Hooray for being an aunt!