Are We Cheapskates?
Our tooth fairy is cheap. Jack, the resident second grader, only gets 50 cents per tooth. Other tooth fairies are shelling out between 2 and 5 dollars for their charges’ teeth. Five dollars? Really? For something over which happens to everyone and they have absolutely no control?
In addition, we aren’t giving our kids an allowance yet. Other parents generously shell out dough to their kids each week, while our underprivileged waifs must make do with not having any money to buy for themselves what they want. We have friends whose kids actually buy presents for each other with their allowance. How old are the children, you ask? Five and three. I can’t decide how I feel about that.
I did recently purchase and read a book called The National Bank of Dad, which is very quick and easy to get through. It’s written by a dad of three kids who came up with what seems to be a realistic and simple way of teaching kids about money. So I guess Hubby and I are going to bite the bullet soon and start the weekly doling out of dough. How much to give them was quite a topic of discussion. Apparently, the general rule seems to be that each child receives the amount each week that is equal to their age. So my six-year-old should receive six dollars each week? Are you serious?
We finally decided to start with $3 per week for the six-year-old and $2 for the four-year-old. Those amounts still seem like a lot of money for kids that young. Maybe our tooth fairy will win the lottery so that our poor children can start earning real money.