Mama, gimme some money

The obsession with money is starting earlier than I expected. My two-year-old son loves money. Any time I take out my wallet, I hear a loud voice from the stroller:

"Mama, can I have your credit card?"

No, I tell him, no credit cards until you can write your own name.

But it doesn't stop there. He carries around fistfulls of pennies. Today his little palm was greenish from holding tarnished pennies for so many hours. He loves to put coins into parking meters. The meters these days swallow pennies without giving so much as a minute in return, but I'm willing to hold him up and let him donate his pennies to the city government. He gets such a thrill out of it.

He calls parking meters "money meters", and lately he's been asking for a toy money meter. We bought him a coin-counter yesterday, and already he can deftly put the coins in, explain in great detail how they go into the plastic sorting tubes, and then demonstrate how to get them out.

He often thinks of a toy he lacks, and asks politely, "Mama, I need a steam roller. Can we buy one tomorrow?"

You all know already I'm obsessed with money, too. So my problem isn't in understanding what appeals to little L. My problem is in trying not to push things too fast, and I also have a little problem with consistency. When he asks for a new toy, my impulse is to give him a lecture on the hedonic cycle, all couched in simple language, of course. But even a simplified version would be inappropriate. Usually, I simply say, "no, we're not going to buy any new toys until your birthday."

But that's a lie. I'm sure there will be many toys bought between now and his birthday, several months away. Look at this week alone. He got that new toy "money meter." My sister gave him a set of wooden beads shaped like vehicles. And this weekend, for our trip to Boston, his good behavior on the airplane will be bought with a little diecast Muck toy from Bob the Builder. (The diecast Scoop toy we got for the plane trip to California kept him happy for several days. $2 at Family Dollar, and so portable!)

So how do I teach him not to expect to acquire new things all the time, when his experience is showing him that new things do appear fairly often? I know the answer already. I can't teach him financial restraint unless I practice it myself, and that means I have to stop sneaking in the occasionaly toy-shopping expedition. It's just that those little toy vehicles are so cute, and his joy is so thrilling for me to watch.

I'd love to hear from other parents about this. Are you consistent about when playthings are awarded? How do you restrain generous family members?

This is a discussion we've had before in the PFblog world, and we'll have it again. I'm just thinking about it today after watching my son walk around with a death grip on three pennies and a nickel from the time he woke up until he fell asleep in his car seat after lunch.