money – Long Island Chick

$75 April PayPal Cash Giveaway!

Kathleen — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 10:45:16 +0000

Dnbuster’s Place and I have joined together with some fantastic blogger friends

to bring you the chance to win $75 cash via paypal.

There will be 2 winners 1~$50 and 1~$25!

All you have to do is use the Rafflecopter below to follow, friend or like participating Pals and you are entered to win. Earn extra entries for sharing the giveaway on facebook, twitter or your blog!

You can do all or just some of them, it’s totally up to you. The more entries you complete the better your chance is to win!

Remember whenever you are using a Rafflecopter it is best that you are only viewing that particular post on the blog you are using.

If you are having trouble, refresh the page.

Since this prizes will be awarded using PayPal,

this giveaway is open Worldwide –

If you have a PayPal and/or an email address you can win!

Giveaway Starts April 1st and ends at 11:59PM PST on April 15th. Winner will be selected by using Random.org via Rafflecopter and will have 24 hours to respond to their notification email before another winner is selected.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thrifty Thursday: Ryan’s Fantastic Find at the Dollar Store

Kathleen — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 17:01:56 +0000

Going to the Dollar Store is an adventure. You never know what you are going to find there. Today, Ryan was feeling a bit under the weather and, since he always goes to school without fail, I decided to keep him home. After a nap and a “bio” (to use a World of Warcraft term), he felt much better so we ventured out. First we explored the new 99 cent store in Freeport which was not only crappy but swelteringly hot in there (did I just make up a word – hmmm…). We promptly left that dump, had a quick bite at Subways next door and went to the Baldwin Dollar Tree up on Grand Avenue.

We bought plenty of goodies, none over a dollar – unlike 99 Cent Empire where most things were over a dollar (what is the point? really???). Ryan had a dollar to spend and here is what he spent it on:

We did pick up some other great items, but this was definitely the highlight of out trip

Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is – Should Children Be Fined?

Kathleen — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 23:16:22 +0000

When I graduated law school and landed my first job as a junior associate at a Long Island law firm (many moons ago), I worked for the real estate partner who had several unique perspectives on everything, including child rearing. If his kids forgot to do a chore, he would do it and charge them for it. I remember on one occasion, his poor son lost his birthday money for failing to clean up the dog poo. Still young and childless at the time, I was promptly horrified. What kind of parent would take a child’s birthday money just for failing to curb the dog???

Now, 12 years into parenthood, I am beginning to see the value in monetary penalties to get these kids to toe the line. Today, I had lunch with my mother-in-law at a local restaurant. We were chatting with the waitress and she shared some of her changed views in disciplining her teenage daughters. Sometimes, the girls miss the bus to school and then, invariably, ask their mom to drive them. With the price of gas over $4 per gallon, that ride costs money. So, she now charges them 6 bucks for the ride. It is still cheaper than taking a cab but it eats into their part-time salaries so next time, they think twice about hitting that snooze button.

Right after leaving the restaurant, I got a text from my son that he had detention after school and would need me to pick him up at 3:30pm instead of being able to take the bus. It got me to thinking about the amount of gas to and from Kellenberg and the inconvenience to not only myself, but his brother who needed to get his homework done. Round trip to Kellenberg – you kill an hour and the boys have music lessons tonight. Why should we be inconvenienced because he forgot to finish some of his homework? Well, I didn’t charge him money, but I made sure he understood what exactly he cost us and that he is going to make it up to his brother (oh and his brother will make sure he makes it up lol).

I think as children hit middle school and beyond, they need more concrete consequences for their actions and perhaps “backcharging” them might be one of the tools in the on-going parental battle with children to make smart choices and not to take their family members for granted.

What do you think? Have you employed any creative disciplinary actions? Would you charge your children for misdeeds?