March 2008

Teaching Kids About Money

by MomGrind

piggy-banks

Teaching kids about money is challenging. Most children have a hard time understanding the value of money until they start earning it.

If they’re too young to earn, a weekly allowance can go a long way in teaching them the value of money, of saving towards a bigger purchase and of comparing prices and making wise buying decisions.

Even if your kids are very young – too young to get an allowance – or if you prefer not to give them an allowance, you can teach them to delay gratification and avoid impulse purchases by encouraging them to start a wish list. 

Whenever your kids see something they want and ask you to buy it for them, add it to a wish list. Once a week, or once a month, go over the list together and see if they still want the item. Often, your kids won’t even remember what was the toy that they wanted so badly just a week ago.

When teaching kids about money, it’s always a good idea to talk with your children about how much things cost. Most young kids are completely unaware of the cost of things, because their parents buy things for them and they never actually pay for anything. When I walk down a drugstore aisle with my daughter and she asks for a particular item, we pick the item up and look at the price. To get her to understand what the price means, I say something like “with this, you could buy 3 candies” or “wow, $5 is really expensive for Chapstick – how about this one, it only costs $3.”

It’s not necessarily easy for me to teach my kids about money and about saving money, because I am not that great at delaying gratification. But this is one of the best things about parenting: the need to teach my kids and model good behavior helps steer me in the right direction too.

When I teach my kids about money, I am teaching myself as well.

Photo by Daniel Y. Go

Mom Jeans: You Don’t Have To Wear Them!

by MomGrind

mom-jeans2Mom Jeans are cheap, soft and comfortable, but their very high waist, generous cut around the derriere and thighs and tapered leg opening are extremely unflattering.

The term “mom jeans” was introduced as part of a hilarious Saturday Night Live commercial with an unforgettable tag line: “This Mother’s Day, don’t give Mom that bottle of perfume. Give her something that says, ‘I’m not a woman anymore. I’m a mom!”

Apparently, some moms really do feel that dressing in a way that’s figure-flattering is inappropriate for a mom. That “if you’re not martyring yourself, and that extends to your physical appearance, then you’re not doing your job as a parent.”

But do we really have to choose between being a “mother” and being a “woman?” A mother is also a woman and a person. A mother can be stylish and fabulous and sexy and interesting. A mother can have an engaging conversation that is not centered on child rearing and a mother can wear clothes that are young and flatter her figure.

Of course, a mother can choose to wear mom jeans if she feels comfortable in them and is not interested, or is opposed to, following fashion dictation and being fashionable or trendy. Either way, it’s a personal choice that should not be dictated by social norms and expectations.

Photo by ifiwererosemary

Healthy Eating For Kids

by MomGrind

child eating fruitHealthy eating for kids is a major issue in many households, especially when it comes to getting kids to eat vegetables.

Jen asks via email, “how can I get my kids to eat their veggies? I don’t want to hide their veggies in pasta sauce and meatballs. I want to teach them to LIKE the taste and texture. Any ideas?”

This is a tough one, but with some persistence and creativity, it’s doable. My kids used to refuse all types of vegetables, and especially green-colored ones. But I made healthy eating for kids a priority, and after months of quiet persistence, they are now willing to at least try the veggies I serve them – and sometimes they eat the whole thing.

The best advice I can give you is to keep trying: continue serving your kids a variety of vegetables, encourage them to try a bite or two, and keep in mind that sometimes children need to be exposed to a new food several times before they are willing to try it.

A few more tips for healthy eating for kids:

1. Give vegetables fun nicknames, such as “green shoelaces” for asparagus or “trees” for broccoli. Kids like to pretend, and my own kids thought it was hilarious that they were eating trees and shoelaces.

2. Add dips. Dipping their carrots in ranch dressing or their celery sticks in peanut butter might make eating their vegetables easier and more fun for them.

3. Try different ways of preparing the vegetables. If they don’t like cooked carrots, they might like them raw. If they can’t stand cooked broccoli, try serving it raw, with ranch dressing.

4. Teaching by example is important. If you don’t eat veggies, how can you expect your children to be enthusiastic about them?

5. Involve them in buying and preparing veggies. When you go shopping, let the kids pick vegetables they’d like to try. Involve them in preparing and cooking the vegetables too.

6. Allow your kids to play with their food. My youngest likes to arrange her peas so that they look like a pearl necklace, then she uses her fingers to eat them one at a time. It’s excruciatingly slow, but she does eat her peas.

If you make healthy eating for kids a priority, and are patient and persistent, you will eventually see improvement in your kids’ eating habits. Good luck!

Photo credit: Bruce Tuten

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