Work, Money. No Work, No Money

My kids recently learned a hard lesson. One of them wanted to buy something really, really cool. One problem, though: He didn't have any money. You could literally see the frustration build in him as he realized he couldn't purchase this item. "It's not fair!" he shouted. After all, his brother seemed to have an abundance of funds, while he was empty-handed.

"You can make unlimited money if you want to do some work. I have lots of projects you can do!"

"I don't want to work, though!"

There it is. The tension. The yin and the yang. The juxtaposition between wanting to relax and wanting to have money. He was feeling all the emotions. As a parent, regardless of how painful it can be, we need to teach this lesson to our children. If we work, we have money. If we don't work, we don't have money.

Wanna know what happened next? Well, he whined about it for nearly a week. He played the victim card, the guilt card, and the self-loathing card. Eventually, after realizing none of those strategies would work, he asked me what projects I had in mind. Boom!!!

Connecting the dots isn't always a smooth process. Sometimes, actually, it can feel futile. However, if we stick with it long enough and not sabotage our own principles and boundaries, it WILL work.

Little man did the work, felt pride in the work, got paid, felt the satisfaction at getting paid, and then purchased his fun item. Perfect. The journey was anything but perfect, but the outcome was just what the doctor ordered. Now, we just need to repeat that a thousand more times before he leaves the nest.

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