Teaching her too well?
I could have sworn, I had talked about this before, but for the life of me, cannot find it in my archives. Oh, well… to summarize quickly… One thing we did very early with LatteGirl is start her on an allowance.
Now, to cover a couple of issues, I always see when the issue of allowance comes up. We GIVE her an allowance. We do not tie it to chores. Why? Because simply put, we do not provide her an “option” of whether or not she does the chores we ask of her. There is no, conversation like, “well if you don’t clean up your room, your not going to get your allowance.” which eventually (at least once) leads to the reply of “fine, keep you money” No. This is not acceptable, and hence we don’t connect them in such a way.
Now for those that argue, “Why should I pay them for breathing?” I can give you some other ways to look at it. First of course you can look at it as paying on installment the eventual therapy bills they will have as adults, and just consider this sort of a payment plan or savings account towards that. More seriously though, stop looking as it as paying them. Think of it in how much it can possibly save you. You are going to spend money on your kids anyway. This allows an easy to understand cap on some types of spending, as well as provides a way to teach financial responsibility.
We give LatteGirl $1 per week for every year. On other words she is 7 now, so she gets $7 per week, but after the end of the month when she turns 8 she will get a “cost of living” increase. With that money we have set up 3 banks for her and (approximately) a third goes in each. So right now, $2.50 goes towards her college fund (and gets put into her 529 plan every other month), $2.50 goes into her “saving up” fund. These are for larger toy purchases she wishes to make outside of what she gets for her birthday or Xmas. The final $2.50 is for her “instant gratification” fund that she can spend (almost) any way she wants. She wants to buy gum, a candy bar or to get something from the Ice Cream Man rather than the ice cream in the freezer? It all comes out of her money. She learns to balance the “I want” against, “is it worth it?” Yes, she has made a mistake or two along the way (but who hasn’t… I still make them), but by and large, these lessons have really seemed to sunk in.
Which brings me back to why I started this post. Perhaps, she is learning a bit too quickly (for me anyway). I have gone out of my way to avoid certain toys. Some are hard and fast rules that we do not allow (i.e. Bratz) but others are things that I am just sort of trying to stall on. One of those items is a Nintendo DS Lite. She has enjoyed the LeapFrog Leapster, and I get the bonus of not only is it entertaining her, but she is also learning something while she is playing it.
However, lately I noticed she has been a bit more frugal than usual (her only real expense this year was that she finally decided to get her ears pierced… but that is another post), and saving some of her “now” money with her long term. Upon inquiry I was informed that since Santa didn’t come across with the DS, and she already knows she is not getting one for her birthday (her request was for another addition to her American Girl Doll collection), that she was now saving to get one herself. Between her allowance and a few dollars she got slipped to her from my mother (Aany money she gets in the manner gets split between her 529 Plan and her “long term” saving fund. Yes, we have this covered as well), but between her sources, she is already better than half way to her goal. And of course, she was quick to point out, that since it is her money, she is entitled to do with it as she pleases since it does not break the “Bratz Rule.”
I am going to have to add an ammendment to these rules and find a way to give myself more veto power. She is learning her way around these issues far quicker and easier than I ever imagined. I never thought I would regret teaching her money management, but while I am thrilled that she has taken to learning this so well, I can see this coming back to bite me.
I think I am
TechParent: LocalCooling
LocalCooling is a free Windows utility that can help you configure power saving settings on Windows (Vista and XP anyway). Now granted, there is nothing in local cooling application that you can’t do yourself through various parts of Control Panel in Windows, but it puts them all in a single easy to use interface.
Through, its extensive database of computer components, the application is able to estimate what your PC’s full usage of electricity is on a variety of components, including the monitor, the hard drive, CPU, Graphics Card and more, and tell you (approximately) how much you save when you implement some of the power saving features.
Of course, the neat feature for those trying to be more green, is you get to see in terms of trees, oil and Electricity how much you saved by turning on some of these power saving features. For those that perhaps are quite so worried about the green aspect per se, there is another cool thing you get to see, and that is the green you will save on your electricity bill. I don’t know anybody that doesn’t want to at least save that sort of green.
Best of all. It is free.
Tech Parent: Remember the Milk
One of the things that despite solid offering for e-mail, and Calendar kept me locked into Microsoft Outlook was Tasks (or To-dos). Yes there are a few different offerings out there of a Web 2.0 nature, but nothing that integrated with other offerings very well. That was until I discovered RememberTheMilk.com. Remember the Milk is brilliant in its simplicity and ease of use. But, that is not the end of it. It can integrate into your Google Calendar, it has features called SmartLists (basically pre-sets like “all tasks due in next 2 weeks, 1 month, etc”), you can share tasks with others.. all for free. And if you go for a Pro Account, you will be able to sync Remember The Milk with your Windows Mobile, Blackberry or even Apple iPhone.
There are plenty of places that have given full reviews of Remember The Milk, so I am not going to give you a full run down. It is a to-do list and Task manager. You know what it does (basically). Sign up (its free), and give it a try… and you may never forget the milk on your way home again.
It will be interesting to see what Windows Live Mesh will bring to the table with the ability to sync data “across the cloud” but until it is fleshed out a bit more, and the direction clear, I will stick with Remember The Milk for all my tasks.
Of course, as with many small Web 2.0 companies, particularly those still in Beta, or of unknown financial status, I would not keep anything in this or any other site that would be devastating if it was lost. Keep duplicates, or synchronize with another source, but never trust your only copy of critical data out of your own control.
A Diet guarenteed to work… if you dare.
OK, if you are like me you have gone on plenty of diets, tried “everything” but “nothing worked.” Most of the times, if we are honest, we probably do something to sabotage it without even realizing we are doing it. But I believe I may have found a cure. The only question becomes, if you have the “stomach” to see it through.
My idea stems from a book I heard about recently, Everything I ate for a Year. We all have some sort of camera at our disposal at virtually all times, whether it be that little point and shoot, or is there a phone left that doesn’t include a camera in it nowadays? So, do exactly what that author did. Whenever you are about to put something in your mouth, whether it is a cup of coffee, a “little snack” or whatever it is, if it is going to go in your mouth, take a picture.
This solves to different issues. Issue one, you have documentation of everything you have put in your mouth (assuming you don’t “skip” a few pictures), and it will help you see what you are actually consuming on a daily basis. The second potential helpful benefit, is that you may even start questioning whether the calories are “worth” having to take a picture and add it to your collection. (Or should you be particularly daring, and post it to a collection on say Flickr, “Is it worth letting people know that I eat that junk?”)
What do you think… would photographing every single thing you put in your mouth deter you from eating more?
Friday Foccacia
Help Wanted - This one isn’t a link. I have been a bit lagging on my posting lately because I am working on a new endevour that I have been wanting to work on for quite some time. A new Podcast. Any tips or tricks on setting everything up would be greatly appreciated. I have been looking at MightySeek’s PodPress plugin for WordPress, any opinions to share?
Go ahead, defend DRM now - Microsoft announced that it is taking offline the License Servers that handle the DRM (Digital Rights Management) for the now defunct msn Music store. Once that happens, anybody who “purchased” music from the store will only be able to listen to it on the devices it currently resides on. So if that PC holding your music dies, too bad, your music is history, and you would have to go buy it again. Once again proving that you do not “own” music that is bogged down with DRM. While the music labels may like this idea, it is just plain stupid in today’s day and age. Just another reason, I am now using Amazon for my music purchases.
You must be a terrorist - Freedom? Protection against unreasonable searches? You must be some sort of terrorist or pedophile with something to hide, right? No matter, according to Ars Technica, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has decided that US Customs agents have the right to take your laptop and search it without reason. Only your alimentary canal is safe against search without cause. Be afraid, be very afraid.
Bad Wiring? - BusinessWeek offered pure speculation on Dell acquiring Radio Shack. While most stories I have seen talk about how it would ruin Dell, or be bad for Dell, I am more terrified of what Dell would do to Radio Shack. I mean, you could be sure that the days of being able to buy circuit boards, and wiring would be over. Where would millions of kids get their parts for science projects?
-
Sponsors
