Working for it

Summer can be a fun and quite expensive time.  There are the wonderful lazy days that the kids just get to stay at home and go swimming and watch movies with the babysitter.  And there is also no shortage of activities for which we must pay.  And pay.  And pay.

There are water parks, movie theaters, sports camps, church camp, ranch camp… you get the idea.

Now, I believe in giving my kids the opportunity to have many different experiences while they are under my roof.  I believe every dollar I spend on various camps is an investment in who they will some day become.  I love giving them the opportunity to learn a little more about a specific sport for a week.  I love the fun an intensity of church camp and with as many wonderful experiences as I had at church camp, I love sharing that with them.  I also think that going out to a ranch for a week of camp is important for my city born and bred kids in order to get them out of the city environment for a while and allow them to do some good old fashioned work and have fun while doing it.

BUT.

As much as I believe in all of these things, it gets really expensive.

From the first time Sarah when to a camp where she spent the night, she was responsible to earn a portion of the money to pay for that camp.  The amount she has to earn is pretty small ($50 + spending money).  And being so young, there is only so much she can do to earn money and most of it is still earning it from us by doing chores around the house.  But we are beginning to instill the idea of working for it.

You see, as much as I believe that the experience of summer camps is an investment in my kids’ futures on my part, I want my kids to know that going to camp is a privilege.  Not a right.  A PRI-VI-LEGE.  So many in our society feel so entitled these days and don’t realize that much of what we have is not a right but a privilege.  I really want to instill in my children early on the difference and that sometimes we have to work for it. 

And we appreciate it much more when we do work for it, don’t we? 

I know I always do.

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Next week I plan to share one of the extra things we’ve done to earn some of the cash.  Stay tuned.

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This post is part of the Works For Me Wednesday blog carnival over at We Are THAT Family.  Hop on over there to get more practical tips from a lot of great bloggers.