Teaching a Child to Live on Less

I'm not sure how great I'm doing right now at teaching my toddler how to Live on Less. I know he is at the age where he wants everything now but I'm trying to steer him the other way. I thought I would tell you two cute stories about my child who still has a long way to go on learning to Live on Less.

First of all, my child is seriously in to movies these days. He wants them on all day (although half the time he isn't even in the same room as them but that is another story). His favorite part though is the previews. He has a few movies that every time we turn them on he tells us he wants every movie advertised in the preview. You have to physically be in the room and say something like "I know you want the new Thomas movie, I will add it to your Aunt Dawn list." If you do not mention the specific movie he throws a fit and thinks you aren't paying attention. We have kept the wants at bay for awhile now by creating an imaginary list for his Aunt Dawn. She lives far away and is sending him a late birthday present. Once the present arrives, I think we will move on to creating an imaginary Easter list. As long as he thinks it is on a list somewhere for someone to get him, he is ok with it.

The next story happened when we were at the mall today. My son has a strange obsession with Stride Rite shoes. He will wear nothing else. Luckily, an outlet opened last year about 30 minutes away, otherwise we would not be able to afford them. My husband was pushing our son in the stroller while I did a little maternity shopping and apparently when our child saw the Stride Rite store he went crazy wanting to go in for "his" shoes. We haven't been in that store in over a year, in fact, we haven't been to the mall in months so I was surprised he knew the store. We were later in a shoe store that carries several brands and he said he wanted some of his shoes. I pushed him to the kids area and he threw a fit because that was not "his" shoes - he was looking for Stride Rites. Isn't it lovely how a three year old can already be a label snob?!

I hope you enjoyed the little glimpse into our life. I thought these two stories were pretty funny considering my husband and I try to live on as little as possible.