They are a nuisance. They are in my sock drawer, the floor of my car, everywhere in my desk, in the little crack of the door jam where the floor and the threshold don’t quite meet, EVERYWHERE!
Inevitably, when I reach for meter money in the car I always end up with handfuls of them, most often concealing a much needed dime in the palm of my hand. They are…Ugh! PENNIES!!!
For a while there had been talk about doing away with the penny. Several bills were sent to congress but, alas, none were passed. Not only it is true that a penny holds little value in our current commerce but according to the US Mint Report 2013, it actually cost more to produce pennies at .0183 cents each! (The nickel also cost more than it’s value at .0914, however they seem to be more useful especially when I’m running in to post a letter). But what if there was another use for the ubiquitous penny? What if we could use them to take over the world, or at the very least the world of small kids inside our homes?
A few weeks ago my adoring and never-less-than-perfect 5 year old son talked back to me in a way that could only be described as reminiscent of the movie “The Exorcist.” But it was my head that spun around, not his. I decided that the only way to reach him at this point and nip this new, though recently more frequent behavior, was by taking away his WII game. (Please note Ben’s WII time was limited to one hour on Saturdays, as it was, because my husband and I noticed his behavior became more aggressive after playing).
I explained to my beautiful, but suddenly unrecognizable child that the WII would no longer be staying at our house. His mouth hit the floor. Throughout the next two minutes of wailing, he apologized profusely and asked for a second chance.
Has this ever happened to you? Probably not.
I reminded him that after the last time he used “angry” words at me, I told him if it happened again, there would be a “really big consequence.” I told him to go to his room and come down when he was calm and wanted to talk. Meanwhile, I unplugged the wires and hid the WII where he would never find it…in the refrigerator next to the vegetables. No seriously, up in a closet next to that elf who comes out during the holidays and tattles nightly to Santa whether you’ve been naughty or nice.
Over the next few hours, he asked many times about where the WII was, when it would come back, and could he still play when his friend Wolf came over for a play date. It’s not here, I don’t know, and no. The questions varied in position but never wavered. For hours, I tell you, hours! Finally, in a tactic change, he pleaded to “earn” it back. He did this as I was struggling to find money for the parking meter in front of the bank (a place where there are probably tons of pennies taking up valuable real estate).
As I looked into the coppery annoyance in the palm of my hand an idea popped into my head, maybe it was the elf or maybe it was my unending desire to rid the world of pennies but a light went off. And I was pretty sure it wasn’t a seizure.
When he asked me the next twenty-six times, over the course of our visit to the bank, about “earning” his WII back, I said we would discuss it when we got home.
When we arrived home I went into the kitchen and poked a slit in the top of a large mason jar. I brought the jar out to him and said the following…
My eyes widened for effect. “This jar is your very own Penny Jar. (Now his eyes were widened as well!). Everyday when Daddy and Baba ask you to do something…and if you do it the very first time we ask… you will earn a penny. If you don’t do it the first time we ask, you lose a penny. At the end of the day we will add the pennies you have earned throughout the day into your penny jar. When your penny jar is full, you will get your WII back and you can use the pennies you have earned in the jar to buy something or save them in your bank.”
He will buy something I am sure. Saving isn’t easily learned by a five year old, but I felt the penny jar itself was a form of saving, reward and potential positive behavioral modification. I may make one for my husband. Although he would most likely say that I don’t listen well all the time either.
It is a week later, and the jar is not close to being full. But, it makes a wonderful sound when you shake it, and the copper at the bottom of the glass jar looks a bit like gold. He doesn’t ask when? anymore, regarding his WII; now, he is only focused on filling the jar.
I couldn’t be more proud of him.
The look on his face at the end of the day, when I tell him there are ten or fifteen pennies, and the ensuing clanking of each one into the jar, is equal parts joy, amazement and pride. And, I get an extra cuddle. The days when he has no pennies going into the jar, it only sturdies his resolve to “get more pennies than ever, tomorrow!” And, I still get an extra cuddle.
I told my visiting friend, who is a mom of three, about the Penny Jar and she was convinced that her older son would want no part of it as he already knew the true value of a penny. She decided to try it with her younger son who is three. He loved the idea. And much to her surprise, her six year old son asked if he could have a penny jar of his own, too!
It looks like those worthless pennies are finally making sense.