Choices for the children

Sweet sweet Friday. Recently I picked up a used keyboard for the children. The plan was to let the boys play with it while my daughter plays the piano. We'll call it a distraction tactic for now.


I began to think about all the things I saw that I wanted to purchase for the children. However, on one income I must choose wisely when it comes to making purchases period. As parents there's so much pressure to get a bunch of things for kids that they really don't need. The boys love the keyboard and I only paid a fraction of the cost for it. What's the difference to them? They just want to play on it.

 

 

 

There's pressure to make unnecessary purchases for myself as well. There are always choices in terms of our quality of life. On one income I have to choose what is priority and what can wait. So one day I sat down and wrote out what's important for us as a family right now and figured out where we will invest our money.

This brings me back to the piano and keyboard. My husband and I decided to invest time and money into music for the children because they are showing interest. Interests vary among children, even in the same family, but for now all my kids love music. So we find ourselves buying instruments and of course lots of books.

By narrowing things down a bit we can focus on quality purchases instead of just buying a bunch of things that may go to waste. As a matter of fact, our piano was free. It was a give away from someone moving. We are always on the lookout for "free" and "used" items to cut cost. 

The money I invest into my daughters piano lessons come from sacrifice. We go without cell phones and cable tv in order to make it happen. Again it's about choices. For some, cable and cell phones are a must but for us they are not, and we live fine without them. We don't want to live without music and instruments and our children love this.

So while we don't have a big fancy house and our living room only has a couch, books and a piano, we have all we need to keep our children happy. I drive a mini-van instead of a Bentley, but it gets us where we need to go, and it's good on gas I might add! Truly life is what you make it.  

So, think about what's important in your world and invest in it. With our current economy there's no room for squander instead make wise choices.  Enjoy a quality of life without spending a fortune.

So what's next?  Maybe a harp.

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