This post is about saving money and about life. More specifically, about life and children.
Let me tell you a little story. I have a two year old son, and I spend every single spare minute of every day with him. He is my life and my joy. But then again, I would think that this is how most parents feel about their children.
Sooo, for the fact that he is 2, our “toy” budget has ballooned quite a bit of late. Again, like most any other two year old, he wants me to buy every single toy he can get his hands on in the store, and a lot of bit of the time, he loses interest in the toy sometimes within minutes of us bringing it home. Of course, I have begun to learn this, and have given in to him less in the recent past.
On the other hand, I also try to “make” a lot of stuff with him as well. We put together things around the house, and he is a great little helper for my odd little fix-it jobs. Recently, we even built a homemade bird feeder out of an empty milk jug and some wooden dowels. The look on his face when we had that thing put together and hung up in the tree is something that I will remember for the rest of my life. He was filled with pride, and was showing it to everyone.
But it didn’t end there. He immediately began asking when the birds would begin eating out of it. I told him it would take a few days for them to get accustomed to it. He made sure to show his mother what we had made as soon as she got home, and the next morning the first thing he did was to open the back door to check on his bird feeder. We had to go outside to see if it needed filling up, and he must look at that thing just about every few hours.
My point is this—store bought toys only seem to last so long with him in the attention span department. They could be dollar toys; they could be $100 toys. On the other hand, the things that involve close interaction with his parents, that involve him having a sense of accomplishment and pride at the end of the day-the attention span on those types of things is endless. And the memories on my part, and hopefully his, are priceless.
Spend all the money you want at the toy store. If you want to give your child something he will remember forever and never grow tired of, spend $1 on a wooden dowel and build a bird feeder with him. Or anything else you can think of. The memories will stay with you forever.Stay tuned for my soon-to-be-published book, “Don’t Be A Mule: A Common-sense Guide to Saving More, Spending Less, and Generating Extra Money in Your Everyday Life.:
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
this is great advice. my son’s favorite memory is catching crawfish with me when he was a child using a piece of old chicken and a string.
we can never forget some days we spend nothing on and never remember ones that cost thousands
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@Carrie Bailey
Thanks Carrie. You’re right–and I hope to build a lifetime of these unbought memories.