Love and Money

Things have been very busy and I don't see a slow down with summer coming on. Aidan is soccering three times per week including games and practice. We're figuring out summer plans, some of his friends may be going to other camps and schools besides their regular school's summer program so we may be sending him elsewhere for summer.

The big life lessons we've been working on involve educating Aidan about money. He continues to learn about saving and spending his own money, but he doesn't seem to understand that there is a limit to Mommy and Daddy's money. Granted, we've been in better shape this year than ever and haven't denied him much. There is a very large soccer goal that showed up in our backyard this week. And he has far more toys than any one kid needs in a lifetime.

Anyone who knows us well knows that we are frugal. Both cars are almost paid for, we're frantically paying off the debt we brought with us, and lately we don't buy anything we can't pay cash for. But Aidan doesn't get the big picture. He doesn't notice that we drive older cars than everyone around us. He doesn't see the lack of hubcaps on our Corolla. So the dilemma becomes how do we teach him that money doesn't buy happiness while juggling somewhere between "we have enough that no one is going to starve to death and we don't need to be stressed out" and "we have enough because we are careful about how we spend and save."

What doesn't help is that we seem to be running into people who must truly feel that their stuff makes them happy. We're talking parents who buy the kid whatever their heart desires and then they brag about it. I admit, I sometimes (more often than I care to admit) will buy Aidan something because I think it's a cool thing to have too. I suspect that's how the soccer goal ended up in the backyard. But bragging about it takes it to a whole new level. A level that Aidan doesn't need to be exposed to. A level that is about to manifest itself in a real life schoolyard competitive shopping show. Oh, how I don't look forward to those battles! I thought this didn't start until middle school!