One of the hardest things for me to do as a parent is to deliberately allow my kids to fail. It’s so hard that sometimes I need to walk out of the room so I don’t end up intervening and bailing them out. Of course, I would never, ever allow my kids to fail if it puts them in any sort of danger. That’s just a no-brainer. But making mistakes is a part of life and, if viewed from the perspective…
I use my husband and kids as guinea pigs. That’s what I was doing one evening during dinner when I handed everyone a post-it note. I was practicing a lesson I was planning on teaching the next day to a group of fifth graders. “Write down five numbers from 1 to 47 on your post-it. You can use your favorite numbers or simply choose random ones. It doesn’t matter. If you match any of the five I write down, I’ll…
I recently read the book, The Overspent American, and it had an effect on me that, frankly, caught me by surprise. I get the whole media push for Americans to buy, buy, buy and I’ve been quite smug with myself knowing that I usually do not succumb to their multi-billion dollar advertisements. Until now. It’s lipstick. And, specifically, the lipstick tube. The book made it very clear that, although unbelievable differences in retail prices, women’s makeup is pretty much the same…
Keeping gas in the tank is painful for a teen when it’s their money that’s being sucked dry. But it’s also a very important life lesson. Teens need to learn how to manage money before we send them out into the world. So Nathan was thrilled when he came home yesterday with yet another opportunity to drive one of Ryan’s friends to school every day. Besides Ryan, this is his fourth passenger. Paying passenger. I told Nathan I would pay him the…
I was trying to figure out this whole LinkedIn networking thing when I got a phone call from Nathan. So it was a nice break because when it comes to doing new things, that learning curve can get frustrating. This was Nathan’s first time depositing checks into his new checking account. We opened the account because, at 16, it’s important for him to learn how to use a debit card and write checks. Yes I know. Who writes checks anymore?…