Few weeks back, my elder daughter Harshita came to me and asked “Mommy, I think you should give me some pocket money”. When asked why, her answer was “because my friends get pocket money from their parents”. Didn’t know what to derive out of it, it’s just an effect of PEER PRESSURE. When asked out of curiosity what she’ll do with the pocket money, her answer was “even I dunno”.
When I was a kid, I used to get pocket money, typically to enjoy the snacks outside the school gate. But my kids get snacks in their school itself, if not, mommy prepares whatever they want, if not, mommy gets whatever they want. So literally they don’t need pocket money :-).
So why should I give her pocket money? Then thought, rather than GIVING them pocket money, how about making them EARN their pocket money. So started this funda of EARNING pocket money with a piggy bank and a deal of 2 rupees if they massage my head.
Coming to head massage, it all started with my younger daughter pulling my hair when she was young. With her gentle pulls, I used to feel very relaxed and now I got into the habit of asking them to massage my head whenever I feel stressed out.
OK, let’s get back to pocket money funda. So I made a deal with my kids that for each 5 minutes of head or leg massage, I’ll give them 2 rupees. They instantly agreed and felt happy to put it to work. So far, it’s going great without them saying “No mommy…not again”. Also it’s good to see kids learning so many things implicitly. Here is the list of things I observed so far:
- Time management: As the deal is for 5 minutes, they make sure they follow the time. They learned the art of looking at time and doing things, in other words learned the value of time.
- Sharing: When I go to shop and tell my kids to buy snacks using their pocket money, I see them sharing the pocket money if the price exceeds their individual contribution and if they both like the same snack.
- Partnership: I saw them making plans together to buy things next in their wish list.
- Accounting: Rather than giving them 2 rupees each time, I give them 10 or 5 rupees. They patiently do the math and give me the correct amount. If I tell them to extend the work for 5 more minutes, they know how much I owe them.
- Auditing: From time to time, they check their piggy bank to see how much they earned and make sure no one is stealing their money ;-).
- Self confidence: When I hand over the money to them, I can see their face glowing with great confidence that they actually earned money by doing some work.
- Bonding with their mommy: More than anything, it is the bonding that makes us feel happy when we talk while they are busy doing their job. And feels great when they tell me “mommy, today you don’t need to give us pocket money, because you are also doing massage to us na..” :-).
At the end of the day, I’m happy that my kids are learning something new.
If you are interested, read more on pocket money at http://www.indiachildren.com/growing/10to15y/pocketmoney.htm
