Mommy Money

Okay, so if I have one more morning like the one I had today (or yesterday, or the day before, or the day before that), I may lose it. My sweet, compliant, obedient son becomes a whiny, stubborn little critter on school mornings here lately. I start the morning as a calm, collected, super mom (that may be a slight exageration) who quickly spirals down into a frantic, ready-to-yell, hair puller (my own, not the boys). No matter what time we start or how much sleep C gets, he is just not a morning person. Now, I must confess that he comes by that naturally. Neither B nor I are morning people. Mom has some delightful little tales of my surliness and general morning grumptitude. BUT, we're not here to talk about me.

The current morning conversation with C has become pretty limited to, "You need to eat and get dressed, Baby. Sweetheart, you need to eat. It's time to get dressed, and you haven't finished eating. Please finish eating. Please eat. Eat. EAT YOUR BREAKFAST. No, you can't watch TV. Please get dressed. Please put your clothes on, Sweetheart. Baby, get your clothes on, please. Get dressed, please. Get dressed. PUT YOUR CLOTHES ON." This rhythm will move on to cover brushing his teeth and getting his seat belt buckled. As you can see. This is not what I would call scintillating conversation.

I have decided to try a little old-fashioned bribery to get the job down. Nothing wrong with a little commerce to oil the wheels of progress, right? I found a website that allows you to put your picture on the currency of your choice.

The site is www.festisite.com/money

Here is what I've created:

Looks nice, yes?

My plan is to pay C with Mommy Money for

• Eating his breakfast without being told
• Getting dressed by himself
• Brushing his teeth
• NOT being whiny

He'll be able to save up his Mommy Money and use it in the Mommy Market. I'm going to purchase some fun little items from the dollar store, as well as some bigger ticket items like Lego sets and privileges (staying up late, donuts for breakfast, extra PlayStation time, etc.). My hope is that Mommy Money will be an incentive to take on the responsibility of getting ready for school in a timely manner. It will allow for him to have a happier start to his day, and it will take some of the burden off of me for monitoring his morning. Another hope for this plan is that it will also foster in C a better understanding of money, saving, and wise spending. It is never to early to instill some budgeting sense into our little ones.

I'm going to tweak my plan over the weekend and launch the Mommy Money/Mommy Market on Monday. Wish me luck. I'll be sure to let you know how it goes!