The $7 Lesson I Taught My Son

Recently, I was at the grocery store with my son. As he usually does while we’re at a store, he found something he wanted. It was a small Lego set priced at $6.99. I told him, “No, not today.” This was followed by whining and complaining that it wasn’t fair, it was only $6 (actually it was $7 plus tax). I explained to him that it wasn’t about the cost, it was about not needing everything we want. He has plenty of Legos at home and we had only gone into the grocery store for a gallon of milk. My logic and explanation wasn’t getting through to him. So, I told him to get a job and he could buy whatever Legos he wanted.

Fast forward a couple of days. Our neighbors were going out to town for a few days and asked if my son would let their dogs out a couple of times a day while they were away. The neighbor told me he’d pay my son $20/day, which I thought was way too much. He asked how much he should pay him, and I responded that whatever he felt was fair was fine. I’d be fine if he’d paid him $1/day, because I really wanted him to just learn the value of doing some work and earning some money for it. After all, my 7 year old doesn’t really have a great concept of the value of $1.

So, after the neighbor returned from his trip and saw that my son took good care of the dogs, he came by with $20 to pay him for the work. A few days later we were back at the same grocery store and my son remembered the Lego set he wanted and asked if he could buy it. I told him that if that’s what he wanted, he could indeed buy it with his money. And he did. On the way home, he kept ranting about how excited he was to have bought the Legos for himself. He then came up with the thought that maybe he should tell other neighbors that he doe’s pet sitting. I loved his entrepreneurial spirit.

A few days later, the neighbor 2 doors down asked my wife if my son would be willing to come by when they were out of town to take care of their rabbit and 2 cats. He’d heard from the other neighbor that my son took care of their dogs while they were away. Upon this neighbors return, he paid my son $40 for his work. My son didn’t have anything that he immediately wanted and as we were talking about it, I told him, “Maybe you should save your money for something you might want in the future.” I said, “Maybe if you continue to save your money, you will be able to buy something bigger.” He liked this idea and hasn’t spent the money. So, in a matter of a couple of weeks, I’ve been able to teach him the value of needs vs. wants, working and earning money, and saving. And he learned on his own the value of being an entrepreneur.

Now if I could only teach him the lesson and value of putting his laundry in the hamper.