The value of money lessons during childhood

There can be no underestimating the value of money lessons during childhood. School does not teach us these crucial lessons, yet it is one of the most important life skills.

I witnessed my own kids learning some key concepts from an incident that they may remember as painful, but hilarious to me.

So what happened was we had a festival weekend in Lacombe, where we live, called Lacombe days that runs for a whole weekend. I won’t attempt to say much on that because my knowledge on the subject is rather limited. But what I know for sure is, we enjoyed it. And that is where my children learned a lesson on the value of money.

Before leaving home I gave them some pocket money, just $5 each, and I have 3 of them. I explained that that’s all everyone was getting so they had to use it wisely. I made sure everyone was fed before hitting the road.

We decided to tour the research station where their dad works. Inside the building, we explored several meat processing stands, with the highlight being an AI meat color predictor used for grading quality. We got some donuts and frozen yoghurt at mini-stations. In my estimation, we spent an hour to an hour and a half max indoors before heading out for more exploration.

Food truck trauma

The moment we stepped outside, my daughter muttered that she was hungry; like how exactly are you hungry already🤨? Well, I held my peace, and decided to just wait and see.

There was quite some activity outside, with beautiful stands and lots of games. The kids had passports to collect stamps at each station, then hand them in at the end. We started with three forms—one per kid—but somehow ended up with just one.😂

After the games, the food trucks started beckoning. We rushed over—one was serving ice cream, the other had savory eats. I reminded them how much they each had, and so they had to choose what they could afford. The list included soda, burgers, fries, chips, water and other things. I gave them some unsolicited advice: skip buying water—it was everywhere for free. Not that they were planning to buy it anyway, lol!

My daughter was immediately taken by a (tiny) cheese-burger. Flashing her math skills, she figured she only needed $9 more. “From where?” I asked, nearly bursting with laughter. Even the lady ahead of us tried not to laugh. Aah my daughter’s face fell.

The kids convened and agreed to pool resources. It really sounded like a good idea until they realized sharing that burger amongst 3 wouldn’t be so easy. They went back again to the board and checked what was under $5.

Grumpily, my daughter finally settled on $5 fries. She bought them and joined me on the grass. They were piping hot, so she couldn’t devour them right away. To my surprise, she started sharing with her brothers.

The lost coin

Turns out the sudden act of sharing wasn’t just kindness—it was necessity. Our middle child didn’t have enough money to buy his own snack. It instantly reminded me of the parable of the lost coin. Earlier, I’d handed him a dollar and two $2 coins. Somehow, it was the dollar that vanished.

The drama over that single coin was real. We searched pockets, retraced steps, even checked the cracks in the grass. Saying ‘we’ is an overstatement, an outright lie: I was just an observer! Several times I had cautioned him to keep the money safe in his pocket as he constantly fiddled with it, but would he listen? No. Now he was learning the painful lesson that if you lose your money you lose your snack, your pride, and any chance of being the generous sibling!

Since I’d been holding the youngest’s cash, I asked our daughter to grab his fries too. She gladly did—and practically beamed when she got change from a $20. Just enough for that burger, she reasoned.

I had to remind her: holding money doesn’t mean it’s yours to spend. They weren’t just learning what money’s worth—they were mastering how it works. Embracing the value of money lessons during their childhood. The golden rule? Live within your means…or better yet, under them.

Lessons from others

One of the funniest stories I ever heard about money was from one of my brothers-in-law. Back in the day, guests didn’t just bring stories—they left behind a little cash for the kids too. It was almost a ritual. A dollar could buy you a lot of candy and make you the star among your friends. He got quite a hefty sum-$10! In his childlike excitement he spent the entire amount on sherbet 😁.

The ‘high’ of purchasing his stash was immediately replaced with feelings of regret. Now he had to devise means to get past his mum. In true African mum style, she marched him back to the shop and gave the shopkeeper an earful for letting a little kid buy a sugar bomb arsenal. Needless to say, the money was then placed in’mum’ bank for safe-keeping, and that was the last he ever saw of it! Asking for it was out of the question, you did so at your own peril- danger of a lecture on how you eat and are clothed since you were a baby, so where do you think all that money came from😧!

From that, he learned some things are best left in dreamland—turns out candy paradise tastes better in your imagination than in real life. Ah, the money lessons of childhood: sometimes, experience really is the best teacher.