The Bank of Dad

Our Farmers are finally earning an income now, an allowance that is. Every payday, we all sit down at the table and dole out the funds, if they’ve earned it, to the kids. Then they have a choice of paying tithing, making a missionary donation, or depositing money into the 25% bi-weekly Bank of Dad to encourage saving. Every week since we’ve started, ALL of their monies, minus the Lord’s and Missionary, goes into the high yielding bank.

Now we’ve had a problem with yelling and general mean, bull-headedness in the family, so last nights F.H.E. lesson, we came up with a potential solution. Mandatory withdrawals from the Bank of Dad per yelling, sharp-tongued occurrence. The rate of exchange is an equal percent of their deposits. Maddy is knocked off a quarter, D.J.’s down 50 cents, Devin a dollar and Mom and Dad two dollars each.

I.O.U. slips will go into a jar for each offence and on banking day, the money is removed and put into a holding jar. The funds of which will be used for something to remind us of our bad behavior by looking up to whom we should all emulate, Jesus Christ.

Sounds a little backwards, I know, but the kids have finally realized the value of money, how long it takes to earn enough to buy what you really, really want and that consequences matter more than just taking away video games. If the money was used as a “treat” instead of a picture or statue of the Savior, there would be a lot of wickedness and more gray hairs upon my head. I hope that in the end, when we finally purchase the “goal” the kids will be more mindful of their words and attitudes. We keep telling them that our home - our family - is a refuge from the rest of the world who will be more than happy to belittle, tear down and destroy them for the fun of it. Not in our house!

Any suggestions or tips? This is the best we got at the moment!

Labels: Home and Garden