★ Mechanical Pocket
Wednesday, June 15th, 2011My son and his pocket money?
I give my son enough money to eat at the school cafeteria for meal break. Sometimes he would like to eat a little something special and he will ask for a little more and most times he gets enough for that as well. So far so good.
There is a little kiosk in the school that sells stationaries like mechanical pencils, erasers and pens. Recently he has been bringing his savings to buy these extras that he obviously doesn't need... it was okay at first with the odd brand here and there... but recently he has started to purchase the more expensive ones and this has led him to bring more and more money to school...
My wife and I have spoken to him many times about the overspending but it has become something like an addiction to him... everyday he will buy something from that shop.
His desk at home is littered with more that enough stationary to last a few lifetimes...
Should we:
- keep his savings?
- reduce his allowance?
Talking does not seem to help.
He is 9 years old
Just a thought, what do you think about having him pack a lunch for school? You are "grooming" him to become a responsible adult and as an adult we work for the money. So how about instead of giving him an allowance tell him for every book he reads (you can give him a choice of which ones) you will give him a certain amount of money for each book he finishes. He also has to pass a quiz (you ask him questions about the book so that he is actually reading it) That way, it's more of positive reinforcement that he
earned it.
Hopefully he will learn to spend it more wisely and he will begin to think of how many books he has to read to save up for what he wants. The other thing is that it provides some one on one time for the both of you.
You could do this for a variety of things. You want to encourage him to work for it and have it be a positive experience. Who knows, maybe when it comes time for him to have kids, he will encourage them to do the same.
"Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it." Proverbs 22:6
Hope this helps!