As a parent, have you ever had one of those moments where your child did the right thing and it put a smile on your face and warmed your heart? As a parent you try to do all the right things and hope in the end it pays off when your children grow up. Over Christmas, I was able to witness such an event with my fifteen year old son and it went beyond just affecting his life.
My fifteen year old son Jacob received $60 over the holidays and wanted to immediately go and purchase some video games when we came back home. It was late when we arrived home and he really wanted to go check out what video games he could buy at our local Wal-Mart.
When we arrived at Wal-Mart we headed immediately for the electronic section of the store. As Jacob was looking at the various gaming options he realized that most of the games that were any good cost around fifty to sixty dollars. I took the opportunity to seize a teachable moment. The first thing I mentioned to him that the $60 that he had was his and he could spend it however he wanted. He could either buy one game now or have no money left over or he could wait until tomorrow and go to a used game store and probably buy multiple games. He thought it over for a moment and said let’s wait until tomorrow.
I was shocked (in a good way). I remember when I was fifteen and I do not think I could have been patient enough to wait. The next day Jacob and I went to a used video game store and Jacob shocked me again. Not only did Jacob purchase three video games and a gaming controller, he also only spent half of his money. He could have spent the other $30 and purchased two or three more games. He however decided to save the money for another day and buy some other things he would want at a later time.
I remember walking out of the store excited that my son did the right thing with his money. He could have spent more of his money and that would not have been wrong either. It goes to show that taking the time to teach our children live lessons and then giving them a chance to practice them have a tremendous amount of value to it. And then it was my turn to learn from my own teaching.
My birthday was several weeks later and when I received cash for my birthday I was tempted to spend it all in spot. Then I thought back to how my son handled his Christmas money and that motivated me to be wiser with how I was going to spend my birthday money.
Take the time to teach your children wise money principles and give them the opportunity to learn and grow with what you teach them. They are eager to learn and eager to do it right (at any age).
Great job Jacob!
Have you ever had any of your children impress you with how they handled money or any other life principles you have taught them?