Hello Mommies

First of all, I love all the topis of this week's daily challenge. They make us think deep into parenthood and how to best manage our child, things which we must do right from the beginning but we often miss out on thinking we have time. But guess what, times flies with babies around and by the time you sit to think about it, they will come running behind you, "Mommy, I want money!"

Teaching a child the value of money is extremely important given the era they are born in. Let's take a step back and think of the times we were born.

So back then, there were no Mobile phones, not everyone had cable television, we were taken to movies and restaurants once or twice a year on a special occasion, ice creams, cold drinks, and sundaes were for parties exclusively, only a few of us had video games and we passed our time playing out in the parks with other kids.

Compared to all the above, my child:

• Was born in a superb 5-star hotel-like hospital.
• Was born in and has been staying in an air-conditioned room since then.
• Was born at 12:11 PM and got his first picture taken at 12:19 PM (mine was 4 months after I was born)
• Has been doing video calls with his grandparents because we can't meet them often.
• Has been eating ice creams and chocolates since he has completed 6 months.

So my point here is that children these days see all these goody-goody fancy things right from day 1 and this is the new normal for them. They don't really know of the good old-day games like Ludo, Hide & Seek, and Kho-Kho. If at all they know, thanks to smartphones and youtube.

So, children, these days have started to think of these things as a basic necessity and don't really value them so much. They see all the luxurious (for us it's still luxury) things and don't even value them because they grow with it. It's not something they have fought or struggled for like us. And hence it's very important that they know the meaning of struggle and understands that they got to earn things and everything won't come easy. Here's my plan:

1. I plan to have a scoreboard at my place where I will be giving points to my child for good behavior. Each point will correspond to a rupee and for him to get stuff and things, he will have to earn with his good behavior.
2. I intend to give him basic pocket money when the time comes which should help him meet his basic needs but for all the other things, he needs to work hard maybe by taking tuition or starting a youtube channel for himself. That's what I did to get a smartphone and I value it so much because I struggled for it.
3. I would let him spend his money his way, with no interference at all. This way, he is going to make some mistakes but will learn from those mistakes and won't make bigger ones with a lot of money when he grows up. He will learn money management while he is young.
4. I will make sure he learns about investments and savings very early in his life. This is one mistake I think I have done and I won't let him do that. Whatever he earns, I will teach him to save and invest.

So that's it. These are the plans I have for my baby and I hope they work.

Happy Motherhood!