Show me the money!

Back at his birthday, Rob became quite wealthy, getting cash gifts from a number of our extended family.  All told, he netted over $200.00 which is WAY more than either K or I ever raked in at any holiday!  He agreed to put it in the bank.  Part of it was intended to be spending money for his week at camp, part of it was intended toward the tuition at camp, part of it he wanted to spend on skateboard sneakers.  I told him that if I did not need to get reimbursed (translated, if our tight finances didn't squeak too badly) I would let him just keep the $100 that my mom sent toward camp tuition in his bank account and that I would take him shopping for sneakers in a few weeks.  Meanwhile, all the money got parked in his savings account.

I have worked really hard to try and teach my kids about saving.  I freely also confess that this has had decidedly mixed results.  I don't necessarily think this has a heck of a lot to do with early life experiences.  I think some people are spenders and some are savers. Some are grasshoppers, some are ants.

Rob up till now, has been pretty much a saver.  He does want some trendy things and i don't buy trendy things as a general rule.  I am pretty much the servicable shoe and boot person. Thus he wanted to use some birthday cash for the sneaks.  When the day came to buy them, I had him get his pass book and told him to take out $90.00  Having been to the store in question I knew we could find shoes that he would like for $90 or less.  Rob has always handled this type of transaction.  I have taught him how to fill out withdrawal and deposit slips and he has had no problem.  I didn't pay a lot of attention to what he was doing as I was changing the type of account that KC  and Elisabeth have to a special savings program they have developed for young children.  It involves stickers and prizes etc!  From the bank we went right to the store.  He chose sneakers that cost $65.00  I remember clearly asking how much they were and him showing me the price on the box.  I let him pay for them himself and I checked out on my own as that was the day I bought my bathing suit.

A week later I asked Rob to get his passbook and the rest of the money so we could put it back in his account.  That was when things got murky.  When I looked at the passbook he had withdrawn $145.00 not the $90 that we had agreed on.  And there was supposedly no money left.  Zero. Zip. Zilch. 

Rob has always had a problem with honesty when confronted with a situation.  I try to not put him in situations where he feels he needs to lie but when things like this happen, questions are sort of inevitable.  I asked why he took out so much money.  He told me that the teller mis read his slip and withdrew $145 for him instead of $90.  I will give you that his transaction took a long time so it might have been a new girl who had trouble reading his handwriting or something.

I asked where the change was.  First I got told that he didn't get the right change at the store.  Then I got told that he lost it.  Then I got told that he gave it to a homeless person.  Sigh.  None of those are really all that plausible except the second one.  And even that, I have my doubts about. 

If he had taken out $90 and couldn't account for $25 after spending $65 I would think that he probably had a candy fest at the corner store.  Unfortunately even with his junk food love I can't picture him having time and opportunity to run through that much money on candy. 

I don't think he has experimented with any drugs or alcohol--he hasn't acted really any differently, nor has he been away from us for really extended periods of time. But part of me worries because I also know my Rob is a bit of a follower.   $80 is a lot of money to be unable to account for.  I figured I had a choice.   1) I could continue to listen to ever more increasingly bizarre stories of what happened to it,  2) or I could put in place some type of consequence and a plan that would help to make sure he is more accountable in the future.  Because I don't want to make myself go nuts, I went with number 2.  I told him that at $8.00 an hour he owes me 10 hours of work.  It won't be unsafe but I can guarantee I will find chores that are not fun. LOL  Also, in the future he will have to show me his passbook before we leave the bank. 

Teen years are so much fun sometimes!