“Repetition”; to a child repetition can be a negative thing?

Children making money can be easily motivated into doing more. The problem is that as time goes on as most parents do - we begin to “repeat” ourselves because children tend to need constant reminders of how we want things done. In teaching my child about money and how to run her small business - I have to be careful not to be a nuisance by nagging [ constantly reminding her ] about what she needs to do.

Repetition; being repetitive can be a hindrance to your efforts

As a parent I know children need constant reminders ofwhat needs to be done and how it should be done. We parents repeat ourselves so much we tend to believe we are talking to the wall when it comes to our kids listening to us. It is simply second nature for us to Nag:

Pick up your cloths
Do your homework
I told you clean up your room
I said walk the dog now!

My daughter is a shy but independent child, I expect much of her because she is extremely smart and I see so much potential in her - but some days, I just want to kill her.

Children are just that children, they do not listen, they ignore you, they easily forget things when it is convenient to them and they act like it is never their fault. We as parents start to do the natural thing - we complain, we repeat everything a million times and they think we are nagging them to death. So in my efforts to teach my daughter about money I have to stop myself from being the nagging parent and figure out ways to convey why I want things to be done in such a fashion, manner or time.

Do you want independent self motivated children or a Slave?

While every parent wishes thier children did everything they were told to do - I want a self motivated independent child not a slave. My goal in teaching my daughter about how money works, business and other financial knowledge is not so that she could be a follower but a leader. In my attempts to teach and train I sometimes forget and simply start barking orders at my daughter expecting her to follow my lead. Which basically defeats the purpose of everything I am doing.

When I first told my daughter that she had enough cash in the bank that she will now start paying for her own materials and supplies: what I really meant to say was: “Now that I helped you build up your cash reserves, the next step is for you to become more independent. To learn how to manage your business and money so that your business can pay for itself.”

But no, I didn’t think and just blurted out that she had to pay for her own materials now - which caused her to complain and argue accusing me of wanting to have her “ waste” her savings. She was illogical, but what can you expect from a 12 year old - I did a poor job of explaining what we were doing and why.

Once I explained what I really meant to say and took her through the motion of having her go to the store, buy new materials, create new jewelry and ultimately sell it for a profit - she began to get a sliver of understanding about what I was trying to teach her. The business should be able to sustain itself - pay for itself - if it is to be successful. It took a few days but she is starting to understand and is happy with the concept.

Slow long process and you need to Push

My daughter is smart but she is shy, which makes the business she is in a bit difficult to accomplish. Besides the fact that I have to remind her that if she does not make product - she can not sell product and make money. The hardest part of this process is to teach her and to motivate her to actually do the selling .

She enjoys making the jewelry, she is a girl and what girl does not like to go shopping even if it is for jewelry supplies - but she is simply too shy to go out their and sell. For the most part I have been their to help and occasionally I had to push her into selling her jewelry. Most of her selling experience has been with family, friends and acquaintances. I push her because as I have explained to her, she needs to grow and build her customer base - she can not rely on the same customers to always buy her products. I also want to continue to teach her how to sell - as I stated in a my post “Teaching children how to sell“, is important. Every child has to learn how to sell because everyone is always selling something - if your not trying to sell yourself for a promotion, a mate, friendship, your selling a product or something else.

Communication is important, yet most people have few skills in selling because they lack communication skills. People fail before they even start because they fear rejection or do not know how to handle rejection. Learning how to sell helps with learning how to deal with rejection.

Finding myself at Odds

As a parent it seems natural just to lead - you tell your kids lets go just follow me - it is just a part of being a parent. It also breaks a parents heart not just to see your child fail but to actually see them ready to fail [ fall ] and not to be able to stop it. In my case, I actually have to stop my natural instinct of wanting to lead, of wanting to protect my child from failure [ falling ] in order to teach her how to succeed.

This puts me at odds with my wife who has taken an active part in my daughters jewelry business and is mistakenly helping her by doing most of the selling [ she calls it helping ].

I also find myself looking forward and not realizing that my daughter is not yet ready for the next step or the next four steps I already planned out for her. My daughter is the typical slick kid - if she can get her mother to do something for her - then why do it herself. But I also have to remind myself that she is only 12 and even though I have to push her at times - I have to move forward at her pace - because then I am simply nagging, being a nuisance and she will hate the business and then my efforts to teach are all in vain.