Tuesday, February 28, 2006

The parenting users guide

After receiving two Birthday cards, both with $10.00 in each of them, my son wanted to count the money in his bank. My wife and he sat at the table counting out the bills. A little while longer, he runs through the house yelling for me. As I walked into the dining room, the two of them look at me with smiles as wide as a truck. My son says to me “Daddy, I have 66 dollars in my bank.” I look at him and ask, in a calm voice “May I have that money?” His face turned to a look of disbelief, as he says quickly “no”. I look at him again and say calmly “May I have some of it?” He then smiles and counts out 3 dollar bills. As he hands the money to me he says proudly “Here you go. You can have $3.00”. I looked at him and said “Wait, I’ll be right back” and I walked away.

My son, as with most kids his age, tends to be a bit selfish. As I amble throughout the house, I think of a to thank him for his gratuitous offer. I then pulled out $1 from my wallet and put it with the money he gave me. Finally, I make it back into the dining room and stand upon him. As I hand the money to him I said “It was very nice for you to give me some of your money. Your $3 has now become $4”. He smiled from ear to ear, yelling the story to his mother, despite the fact that she was there for the transaction.

Thinking I had just given my son a good lesson in sharing, I turn around and walk away. He then yells to me “Hey Daddy, let me give you $4”. This makes me stop in my tracks. I then turn around and simply say to him “No buddy, just put it back to Mommy can put it into your bank account”. I thought to myself, I can’t believe my son is going to be a stock broker.

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