It has always been important to me for my kids to grow up to be financially literate. Especially with today’s world, where experts are predicting kids are going to struggle just to have the same standard of living their parents have, let alone surpass it.
My goals are that my kids know how to budget and plan, and that they know how to give. To that end, we have regular conversations about our money and theirs. We are real with them about budgeting, and they see me entering my receipts into Every Dollar, a DR (Dave Ramsey) app that helps you budget and track spending. For our homeschool, we read How to Turn $100 into $1,000,000: Earn! Save! Invest!, by
Teaching my kids about philanthropy has been a little more challenging. Our kids know that we support a couple of kids through different organizations. They write letters to our sponsored kid in South America. But since most of our giving happens online, in the form of automatic monthly withdrawals, they aren’t really seeing it happening. And I don’t always think to talk to them about it.
Last Christmas, a family friend had a great idea for a gift for our kids that was both creative, and helped solve the problem of how to teach your kids about giving.
After reading three other Brené Brown books, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to dive in for more. Is there anything she could say that I hadn’t gotten from the other books? There had already been some overlap between them; my reading pile is so high. I wasn’t sure if I had mental space for more.
But I made space for Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead. And Brown filled in the missing pieces of the shame puzzle, fleshing everything out into a tough, but satisfying meal.
There were parts of all three of the other Brown books that really resonated with me, but I found this one to be the most valuable and applicable to me overall.
An unexpected benefit was the parenting section.
One evening not too long ago, we did our twice weekly walk at the riverside bike/hike trail. It’s something we’ve been doing for a couple of months now. Our four Littles are used to it, even if they don’t always enjoy every moment. We’ve cobbled together a combination of scooters and strollers, snacks and water bottles, wet wipes and even a first aid kit. It works for us most days.
Even with all the supplies we bring, that there are always a few places on the walk when someone isn’t happy. Everyone has their moments, but usually, it is Six. He doesn’t like any situation where he isn’t in control, and he knows if he slows way down or refuses to continue, we have no choice but to either wait for him or try to cajole him into some alternative – whether it’s walking a little further, going a little faster, riding in a stroller for a bit, or taking a piggyback ride.
This particular time, he was at it again. We were very near the parking area after an especially long walk – we’d gone further down the trail than we ever had before, and all the kids were tired.
Six was fed up with walking and stopped off on the side of the trail and refused to go any further. If we weren’t in sight of the end of the trail, we would be around the next corner. Two bikers loaded down with gear bore down the path, riding side by side. One of them spoke loudly as he approached us where we walked, a hundred feet or so in front of Six on the trail.
Today has been a bit of a crazy Monday. In fact, the past four days have been pretty nutty. So I have pics of apple picking, but I don’t really feel like talking about apples. Except for I ate one of the apples fresh from the orchard today, and it was amazing.
