First National Bank of Dad
The Best Way to Teach Kids About Money
Excerpt
Chapter One: Children and Money: An Introduction
When our son was born, my wife and I needed a baby blanket for his crib. Our daughter, who was three and a half, had several old ones in her closet.
"What are you doing in my closet?" she demanded.
"Just getting one of these old blankets," my wife said.
"Why?"
"To give it to your new baby brother."
"I want it!" our daughter screamed.
"But, honey," I said, "you didn't even know that old blanket was there."
"I need it!"
"It's a baby blanket. Don't you want to give it to a baby?"
"I want it!"
My wife and I looked at each other in despair. What to do? Suddenly, my wife had an inspiration.
"Would you take five bucks for it?" she asked.
(No more crying.) "O.K."
Money is a handy tool if you use it wisely. Even very young children get the hang of it in a hurry. In the baby-blanket incident just described, my wife narrowly averted a family crisis by offering to swap an emotionally neutral symbol (money) for an emotionally loaded one (the old blanket). With a crisp f ... read full excerpt from The First National Bank of Dad: The Best Way to Teach Kids about Money ebook
