Money

The topic of conversation on our walk home from school today:

MADELEINE: Mama?  How come people NEED money?
ME: You mean, why do we need money to live?
MADELEINE: Mmm-hmm.  How come people can't just GIVE each other everything for FREE?
ME: Well, imagine this.  If you decided to build a house for someone and give it to them for free, you would still need all the materials for building.  You'd need to get things from the store, like nails, and plaster, and wood. So you'd have to buy those materials and spend your own money, and you wouldn't make any money back if you give the house away.
MADELEINE: But why can't the store just GIVE you the wood for free?
ME: Well, in order for there to be wood, someone needs to be chopping down trees and sawing and sanding the wood until it's the right shape and size for building with.  That's a LOT of hard work and labor.  That would take a lot of time and effort for someone to do, so really, that person should get paid for working so hard.
MADELEINE: Oh.  Yeah. 
ME: It's the same thing with food.  Somewhere, farmers are growing the food that we go to buy from the grocery store.  So even if the grocery stores gave the food away for free, the farmers who worked so hard growing food should be paid for their labor.
MADELEINE: (thoughtful) But Mama.  Couldn't you, like, just give them a picture of, like, a silly snake or something?
ME: You mean for payment?  Instead of money?
MADELEINE: Right.

I know that if I spent my time toiling and sweating away in the fields, or cutting and sanding wood, there would be no greater reward than receiving a picture of a silly snake.  Who needs money when you can have great art??


ME: What made you wonder why people need money?
MADELEINE: I didn't know why people needed money, because...it's hard to
GET money.
ME: Well, if you have a job, you can get money.
MADELEINE: Huhhhh!??!
ME: Why is that so confusing for you?
MADELEINE: Well...it's hard to DECIDE what kind of job you want to do.
ME: Well, you don't have to have just ONE job for life.  You can try different jobs and switch to something different if you don't like what you're doing.
MADELEINE: Mama?  When I grow up, I want to be a basketball teacher, and there will be a Star of the Week, and the Star of the Week will make a DESIGN, and there will already be a design that's made, and the Star of the Week will get to decorate the outside of it!

Wow.  Madeleine has her whole life figured out here.  Sounds like she's got a career plan in place that's going to land her an amazing job as a basketball teacher/Star-of-the-Week design-overseer.  Dream big, honey!