money issues with a 3 year old - future value issues

[meemee]

i have a v. strong willed 3 year old who wants to know 'why'. and usually if i am honest with her she accepts and the reason why and stops pursuing it. For instance she wants to eat out or wants icecream. With icecream I tell her sometimes she has had too many sweets so she cant have any more. sometimes I tell her I don’t have money so I cant buy it and so we don’t have any at home. Same thing with the restaurant. Sometimes I tell her it is too late which it truly is or sometimes I tell her I don’t have money to buy her the food.

She has always been fascinated by coins and notes from when she was an infant. And today she knows her currency. And so I have been giving her my explanation.

What I am trying to figure out here is am I instilling too much of a money minded thing here. I am trying to work on our value system. and i dont want her to lay stress on money. but yet i dont want to lie to her but want to tell her the true reason why we cant do certain things.

[lilyka]

I do the same thing.

one of my chidlren is highly intrested in money and the other could care. So i think it doesn't have anything to do with me teling her that we don't have enough money for something. I htink it is good for us to know that things cost money and we only have so much money.

[ParisAnne]

I don't know if you are or not, but our dd is almost 4, and we are trying to teach her to be money smart. We use a moon jar with her. She gets $3 a week, so she can put a dollar in each spot- Saving, spending, sharing. When the saving one builds up we take it to her savings account at the bank, the sharing one we donate to charity so she understands other people/animals need things, and the spending she uses to buy her own things. This way I can easily say "well you didn't bring your money," if she is whining about wanting to buy a toy.

I just try to be honest with her I guess. If she's asking for ice cream, I'll tell her we don't have the time, I don't have money or she just hasn't been eating very well to deserve the ice cream. Whatever it is I try not to lie to her. They are very very curious at this age, always asking questions, and I find too that most of the time she accepts my answer, though often it brings on more "why's?"