I believe that having the child contribute babysitting earnings and allowance towards her activity will serve more than one purpose. It will teach her responsibility and the importance of planning ahead, it will teach her about budgeting and it will increase her enjoyment of the event because she earned most of the money herself. When youngsters are given absolutely everything that they want without having any responsibility to contribute towards it, they don’t usually appreciate it as much – at least in my experience. It is easy to give a child a twenty dollar bill so that they can go for pizza with their friends. By next week, the entire outing will be a distanct memory because it came to them so easily. When I was a young teenager I really wanted to go to a regional BBYO convention. My parents, who were very lenient, told me that I could not go because I had really been slacking off at school and that over the winter break I would be hitting the books. I was determined to go and told them that I would find a way to do so. I entered the storytelling contest in my BBG chapter and won and then won the citywide contest which meant that my trip was paid for and I “had” to go to the convention. Of course, by this time my parents were so proud, they sent me off with their blessing. I was very fortunate to win the contest on the regional level, as well, which meant that several months later I went to the district convention – in California. I remember all of this experience very vividly even though it was 50 years ago. I attended many conventions, but these 2 really stand out in my mind because it was a lot of hard work to hone my oratory skills, find a suitable story with a Jewish theme, commit it to memory, etc, etc. The hard work involved instilled more of a sense of responsibility in me and really increased my enjoyment of the event. It is far clearer in my mind today than the other events I attended that my parents merely wrote a check for.
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