Kids and money

Last night my son sorted coins from piggy bank, making a racket, I entered his room, looking at his bed the coins rested in the pleats and rumbles of the comforter. He explained a unique way of tallying up his coins. As I exited the money-counting scene, he asked to join me on the next trip to the grocery store. This morning he asked the same thing, retorting back I reminded him it was a boring chore to grocery shop, he insisted. He wanted use a Coin Redeemer contraption at the customer service counter. Aha, I thought. What is the motive behind this sudden need for cash, I wondered? After he left for school, it was still on my mind. Did my son want to buy something? If so, what? Moreover, why not ask me? Or did he just want spending money? The idea of money was beginning to form more concretely in my son’s mind. Always a great saver, I noticed lately coins in his pocket, occasionally riding his bike to the corner store to buy candy. One day I sat him down and made it clear it was his money but needed my permission to spend it, hoping to teach great money habits. Therefore, this morning’s conversation puzzled me. But as I thought about it more things began to add up. Over the summer, he mentioned things a famous rocker owned. He talked about cribs of the rich and famous and what he would buy with a million dollars. Dirt bike, ATV, BB Gun, and a Sport Car. Being a smart kid, he understood the material disparity between our life and theirs. It was this particular sense of disparity that concerned me. I knew disparity quite well. Growing up, disparity was a huge focus for me. I noted it everywhere and not only monetarily. I noted in love, family, belongings, intellectually and even physically. I knew how it affected a person’s confidence and worth. Knowing how damaging it could become, I did not want it taking too space in his life.

I really wanted to tell him money does not indicate your worth. Where and when did he get such ideas? From me. From his dad. From his friends. Knowing it did not necessarily come from just one source, I found an area that blinded my son into believing money makes the man. Reality Television. Reality television showcases people doing just about anything for money, like: eating bugs, selling their dignity, dancing, tattooing, and living in the jungle. We are in the midst of a era where the younger generation want fame believing to some extent its equivalent to money, thus equivalent to happiness. Once they have the money, the tendency viewed is it is an end all to everything. Money is naming us, making us do silly things, undignified things; we’re letting money be our ticket. To where? To MTV, to mansion full of disposable material items, to a shallow life based on such an intangible item like money. Reality shows fail to show, for ratings of course, the downside of fame and money. There is no footage of maintaining fame or the costs of sustaining a highly publicized lifestyle. In reality, fame and money more often than not messes up a young person’s life. Proof. Read today’s Page Six in the New York Post on a young oil heir’s problems maintaining such an extravagant lifestyle. I want to tell my son “look at this young man.” I do not want him disillusioned by popular culture, not to equate happiness with money, fame, or material things.

I want him to know money is only one aspect of life. Being a good person tops the list. In my son’s life, I constantly show him all the other aspects of importance like family, school, sports, love and helping others. It is every mother’s dream to raise their children with good morals and values. Distressing as it may, reality television tantalizes my son like many other young teenagers in North America. Recently, my husband blocked out channels, specifically MTV and limited television viewing. Whether we like it or not, access to popular culture not only exists on television but on the internet, at school and amongst friends to name a few. It’s going to be part of their life in one aspect or another, being our own reality television show of sorts by showing your child love, respect, equality and the art of giving not taking is a start. Deep down my son knows the truth or the reality of life because as I write this he is at school helping somebody with something. One of his many endearing qualities………