One of the first concepts I strive to teach my children about money is how we actually get it. A young child may believe that the bank or the ATM “gives” us money. Or perhaps they believe a piece of plastic will buy whatever we need.
While we as believers can trust in God’s faithful provision, we must also be diligent earners. When children grasp that earning money comes through work, they are learning one of God’s first commands.
God established work while Adam and Eve were yet in the Garden of Eden. God invited them to join him in the ongoing act of caring for creation. Work before the fall of Adam and Eve is a blessing, not a curse. All work has dignity.
For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.” 2 Thessalonians 3:10
Here, Paul petitioned to the church to follow his example of avoiding idleness.
I have worked for as long as I can remember. Not just for the sake of earning money, but also by assisting my mother with my younger sisters and household duties as a child. Later as a single mom, I supported myself and my daughter with a full time job. Today, my job is at home.
How do you teach your children about the value of work?
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At this point in my life with Ridley being only 17 months, I’m teaching him about work by my example. Also, we’re working on picking toys up and doing basic tasks. I think it’s never to early to start! 🙂
Love this series!
We have 3 kiddos – 12, 6, and 3. From a very early age, we have taught the children to do their part in contributing to chores and such around the home. A chore = a specific privilege. Now that our oldest is desiring to do more shopping and such for himself, we are also putting $ price tags on certain “bigger” chores around the home for him. He also is learning my couponing tricks and how to follow sales so that he gets the best bang for his buck when he does go shopping. 🙂
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I have a young 16 year old girl who loves horses (she is not mine) that showed up at our barn wanting to work for riding lessons. I told her that I would credit her with $5.00 for each stall she cleaned and that I charged $25.00/riding lesson. She is not making any money but she is being taught that you have to work hard to get to the benefits which is riding a horse. Another way, I assigned certain tasks in our house based on level of difficulty. If my boys when they were growing up wanted something and didn’t have the money, they knew exactly how much work they would have to do to make the money to get what they were wanting. This was in addition to their regular household chores that they were not paid to do – that was part of being a family.
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My oldest daughter and I have money conversations all the time, and I need to really start teaching the three younger ones a lot more.
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I think this is an area where letting your children see you use CASH can be super helpful. I am not one who feels that all credit card users are irresponsible or foolish. However, I think that the sheer tangibility of coins and bills helps so much with the lesson. My husband manages a bank and I worked in banking before having my children so I think “teaching finance” has always been really important to us. Even as little as they are (well, the 4 and 5 yos- not the 1 yo yet), we give them a few coins if they do their chores cheerfully and joyfully. They have “counting” banks and are able to watch their savings rise. They also know that that number will tank should they choose to buy something… knowing that is usually enough to stop them from even wanting cheap little toys! 🙂 I am LOVING this series! Thanks, Alyssa.
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LOL! My kids think that our money comes FROM the bank, despite having explained it a million times! We pay them for chores, but I’m still searching for ways to teach them about money.
.-= Stephanie @ Couponing 101´s last blog ..All You Magazine July 2010 Coupons =-.
I think the easiest way to teach anyone the value of work, is to relate it back to purpose and passion.
The type of work I see today, is not really what I think God intended for His people to be doing. Many people toil, and struggle, and strive, when really, in the Kingdom, it’s about rest, prosperity, joy, wisdom, giving, being a lender, being an example, being a leader, owning…etc.
Adam was called to oversee. The garden was his, God made him a partner. There’s a certain passion that comes when you own something, or when you’re operating in your purpose, or what you been called to.
When I was a child, I despised the idea of “work” because my single mother was working a boring 9 to 5 job, that had nothing to do with her gifts / talent, or passion. So work always had a negative connotation in our house, even though it paid the bills. I didn’t change my disposition until I began to focus on getting involved in a career related to my passion, and began to understand how the Kingdom operated.
Kids I speak to eyes light up when I talk about my life, because my career doesn’t feel like work. It’s my passion, it’s my destiny, and it pays…I think that gets their attention more than anything, because everyone desires to use their God-given creativity, at the end of the day.
I’ve been struggling with the transition from corporate mom to stay at home mom. Thank you for the reminder that all work has dignity and I have an opportunity to teach my daughters well during this season of our lives.