What Just Happened? - Part 2

So its now 7:15 and all is quiet (more or less).  What did they rest of the day hold for Miranda and I?  The conversation about her paying for the baby sitting class continued while we had lunch.  Luckily, no tears this time.

Still no real insight on Miranda's part regarding why she reacted the way she did.  She still maintains that the first conversation never happened.  We agreed to be a little more deliberate when discussing money in the future, particularly if it is not at the regular banking time.

So what's the final outcome?  She is still paying.  She did catch on to my rather large hint that she should treat this as an investment, and make a withdrawal from her investment account to pay for it.  We also talked about the need to track what we invest in the business so she can figure out if it was an good decision or not.  This will now become part of our regular banking routine.

Of course, being the guy with too much time on his hands that I clearly am, we spent an hour or so discussing how to treat her baby sitting endeavor as a real business.  We now have a business name (Miranda's Lil' Monkeys), rough draft of a resume, rough of a business card and the beginnings of a marketing plan.  In hindsight, I think this confirms that the concerns about entitlement are real, and I still think there are better ways than tying the allowance to chores to drive this point home.  Maybe this whole thing was simply a way to let me know "now is the time to deal with this"?

Little side benefit for me - it allowed us to talk about my business, and how I started it.  Given that I work from home and can more often than not be found at my desk in jeans and a t-shirt or my work out gear, it is challenging to make them believe that I actually do work for a living!  Any time I can make it a bit more real is important.

Talk to you later.....

What Just Happened?

This was the question I had to ask myself as Miranda's eyes began to tear up.  I had just reminded her that we needed to finish our conversation, started a week earlier, about how to pay for the baby sitting class.  She claimed the conversation never happened, and she did not want to pay.  A couple lessons here:

• Inspect what you expect - Always circle back (ideally sooner than the next week) to make sure that what you think was communicated did in fact make it through the skull and in to the gray matter.
• I am never as clear in my communication as I think I am.  Never.  I keep improving, but there is always room for more.
• Never underestimate the emotions that are involved with financial decisions.  If an 11 year old can burst in to tears over something, you know we still have emotional responses as adults.  Maybe not tears, but a response none the less.
• Ah yes, entitlement does rear its ugly head.  I still think the point of allowance is to learn to manage money, but part of that lesson is that money is earned.  Clearly, now is the time to start driving that home.  Its a process.....

This was a week ago.  I left it alone with the following instructions/comments:

• We are spending a ton of money to ship you off on these summer adventures.  You need to contribute to this.  Period.
• She did admit to the two reasons she wants to baby sit - loves kids, wants cash.  Reminded her that this class is an investment, just like a real business would require.
• Most importantly, spend some time reflecting on why you had such a strong emotional response, and think about possible strategies to use to pay for the class.

The follow up conversation happens today while Kellie and Logan are off at a birthday party.  I'll let you know how it goes!