Gabe's First Purchase

For a few months now, off and on, we've been trying to introduce Gabe to the concept of money. I tell myself that this is for his benefit as I hope, at an early age, we will be able to teach him to be responsible with an allowance and save it for things that he really wants--taking the first few steps towards teaching him how to temper his consumerism and prioritize his spending in a way that will something something something. Whatever.

But the REAL reason we do it is for our own benefit. First, by teaching him the value of money, we will have an effective method of bribing him to do chores around the house that neither Libby nor I want to do anymore. And, second, we'll be able to stop buying him every little thing he wants because he'll have his own money to spend and he'll have to pick and choose the things that he really wants.

But it's been pretty slow going so far. He grasps the concept of "money buys things," but he is having a difficult time coming to terms with money's value. Just last week, we had a conversation that went something like this.

"I will get some new Legos," he said. This is his typical negotiating open. He states it as undeniable fact and then, from there, he can claim that anything we say is simply an easily dismissed excuse that is standing in the way of that reality.

"Not today, hon," I replied.

"I will get new Legos yesterday," he informed. He's also having a tough time grasping the concept of the passage of time.

"Legos cost money, hon, and we are poor."

"What is poor?" he asked, cutting to the chase.

"It means we don't have a lot of extra money to spend on things we don't need." I followed this with a list of the things we DO need, like our house and electricity and the internet and hookers and blow--the necessities.

"But you have LOTS of moneys," he said.

"What do you mean?"

And he walked over to the big jar of loose change that we have in my office. "See! There are LOTS of moneys in there!"

Which was true. There are lots of moneys in that jar. But most of them are pennies. So, total, there's maybe a hundred bucks or so in there (and, secretly, I'm saving that money to put towards a new gaming console whenever my X-Box craps out or is replaced by a new system). I spent a little time trying to differentiate the various coins in there (glossing over the few dollar coins since, really, they won't be around long enough to worry about) to him and their relative values.

I think part of the problem is that he can't reliably count past 16 right now. Probably it's difficult to comprehend the concept of 100 pennies if it's just some number you can't even picture.

Anyway, Saturday, we tried our hand at bribing him with money. We offered him a quarter to do two separate chores. When he finished them, we gave him $.50 and told him we'd go somewhere that he could spend it. Since there aren't many places $.50 will get you something these days, we went to the thrift store.

Sadly, it being a Saturday, the toy section at the store had been pretty thoroughly picked over. There was nothing left but a few sad bored games and a couple of puzzles--none of them appropriate for a 3 year old.

Nonetheless, he found a puzzle that he became instantly enamored with--a 750 piece landscape puzzle. Despite numerous attempts by both Libby and I, he refused to consider anything else (the closest thing to age appropriate was a 100 piece one for ages 6+, but even that would have been better). But he was insistent that THIS puzzle was what he wanted. We tried to tempt him with some new books and a number of other things, but nothing worked. It had to be this puzzle. And it WAS $.50. So he bought it (we covered the tax because I figured that was a concept for a later day).

We had walked to the store, so we had a bit of time getting home for Gabe to revel in the glory of his purchase and plan for its eventual use. All of these uses involved us putting the puzzle together for him. He refused to believe that such a huge puzzle would take us more than ten minutes or so to put together.

So, when we got home, we opened it up and showed him the puzzle. He was immediately disappointed and couldn't understand what was going on. All he saw was a million tiny little pieces that made no sense to him.

And he was pretty much done with his puzzle from that point on.

Libby did talk him into using some of the pieces to decorate a cardboard box that he's going to use for storing something or other. They used a glue stick and started sticking the pieces to it.

After ten minutes of that, Gabe was pretty much done forever with his first purchase. Based on that level of interest, I would say that I am NOT teaching him responsible consumerism--I appear to be teaching him the worst kind of buy-this-on-a-whim-and-be-done-with-it-in-a-day consumerism. Guess I'm going to have to start buying him anything for awhile and see how that goes.

And here are some pictures of the puzzle and the box project.

Libby says this is still a work in process. I don't buy it. This will sit on our dining room table for a week and then I will throw it in the recycle bin. Mark my words.