Money Lessons

I have certain expectations of Blueberry when it comes to chores around the house. She is expected to clean out the dishwasher when the time is appropriate. She is expected to keep her room clean and presentable. It is expected she will put away when finished any toys, books, etc that she may bring out to play with. You get the idea. I realize she is six and I know that her room is not going to be spotless all the time. However, when she does clean it, I expect the dirty clothes would get put in the dirty clothes basket and the clean clothes would get folded (key word) and put away in the proper drawers. Somewhere along the way Blueberry missed the eleventy billion lectures explaining how socks and underwear are items of clothing and therefore the clean/dirty rules apply. I consistently find dirty socks and yes, horror of horrors, dirty underwear in her drawers. The same drawers that are only supposed to hold CLEAN clothes.

When she does get the clean clothes into the drawers they don't get folded. Even though we have had countless lectures about the benefits of folding clothes versus wadding them up in a ball and stuffing the drawer like a Thanksgiving turkey. This is most typically what her drawers look like:
Clothes strewn haphazardly. Drawers not able to close because nothing lays flat. Now, in her defense, one may say that she is only six and quite possibly is not capable of folding neatly. I was tempted to believe this defense myself until she went to my parents for a few days last week. Blueberry packed her own suitcase. I had nothing to do with the clothes she chose, nor did I have anything to do with the way she put them in the suitcase.


The above picture is undeniable proof that my child is, in fact, capable of folding. Unfortunately, the only conclusion I can come to is that when it comes to her drawers she is just plain lazy. I seem to have found a solution to this problem though. Yesterday she asked for an Ipod. My answer was a firm no, (after I was finished laughing hysterically). This is just one of the many things she has asked for lately. I am tired of telling her we can't afford these things she wants so desperately, all the while getting on her case for chores left undone or half done. (I can't justify spending the money on the Ipod, but just for the record, even if I could there is no way I would buy one for my six year old. That's just me though.)

After a lot of going back and forth, I have decided to give Blueberry an allowance. If she does her chores, and does them the way she is supposed to, she will get one dollar at the end of every week. If she does not do her chores, no allowance. Period. After our allowance conversation yesterday she promptly went into her room and cleaned it from top to bottom, even cleaned out her drawers! She also asked to set her alarm 15 minutes earlier this morning so she would have time to make her bed after she got up. I realize one dollar a week may not be a lot (and once she figures out just how little it really is, the excitement of putting stars on her chore chart will probably vanish) but she is only six.

I am still not totally sure the allowance route is the best road to go down. We never got an allowance as kids, but I need Blueberry to realize that the things she wants come at a price and I am not sure how else to teach her that lesson. I don't want her to grow up just expecting to get whatever she wants whenever she wants it. We have become a society of instant gratification, and I admit, I have been guilty of indulging Blueberry's wants far too much. I want her to know what it means to have to work and to save for something. Hopefully, in having to wait a little longer for things she will come to appreciate what she does have a little more. Most importantly, I hope she will realize that it isn't the "things" we have that make us happy anyway. At the end of the day, it is the people we love, and the ones who love us that make our journey through life worthwhile.