Financial Literacy and Independent Decision Making for Three Year Olds

Posted by Michelle Carchrae Sep 7, 2009

Today my just-turned-three year old daughter decided she wanted to use the money in her new piggy bank to buy an ice cream cone. After reading Barbara Coloroso's Kids Are Worth It! [Harper Paperbacks, 2002] I had started giving her a small weekly allowance, to help her understand the value of money by saving and purchasing things by herself.

It all sounded good on paper, this idea of letting a child decide what she wants to spend her money on. When the woman handed a $3 adult-sized strawberry waffle cone over the counter to my daughter, I had some second thoughts. It was her money, so she ate the whole thing herself, minus three or four small bites for mom. An adult-sized strawberry waffle cone has a rather considerable amount of sugar in it.

As the sugar high persisted through the afternoon, triggering several screaming fits and a whole lot of general uncooperativeness, I wondered whether I'd done the right thing. She does need to learn how to use, save and spend money wisely. Perhaps she just needs a smaller allowance.