Family Quotes and Sayings
We hope the Spend Then website will be your go-to resource to help your kids understand basic financial principles and learn how to manage money so they can launch into adulthood one far off day, ready to earn, save, invest and more. In other words, we want to help you raise kids who are financially literate.
Because financial education is deeply intertwined with your family’s values, our first few blogs are going to focus on things a few things we think are important to consider before you embark on a financial education plan for your kids.
My Family’s Sayings
When I was growing up, my parents invested a lot of time and energy into making sure their kids understood our family’s values. They did this in a number of ways, but one of my favorites was by creating our Family Sayings, which we all memorized and had fun reciting after dinner every night. You read that right. Every night!
We had four Family Sayings but the number isn’t significant. What matters most is that you choose sayings that represent the heart of the way you want your children to interact in the world. Here are ours:
I can do it.
Do your best.
Do what’s right.
Treat other people nicely.
I think my parents were trying to teach us resourcefulness, courage, and to help us learn to believe in ourselves, among other things. Let’s look at each of our Family Sayings a little more closely.
1. I can do it. To my dad, this was the paramount principle. I think this is because it was important to my parents that we didn’t admit defeat before we’d begun and that we were self-reliant enough to figure out how to tackle a new venture. If I felt scared or was nervous to try something, my dad would ask me, “What’s our family saying?” He’d remind me, prompting, “You have to try. You can’t say you can’t do it because you don’t know.” In this way, he helped me to have the courage to try new things and to believe that I could, in fact, do it.
2. Do your best. My parents firmly believed that it’s about the process, not the outcome. What they always wanted was for us to be proud that we’d given our all to the task at hand. “Did you do your best?” my dad would ask. “That’s all you can ask.” My parents wanted us to develop the sense of self-worth that comes from knowing you’ve put your best effort forward, regardless of where the chips fall. (As an aside, when you put your best effort forward, the chips don’t always fall your way, but it certainly ups the odds. We learned that, too.)
3. Do what’s right. Behind this family saying was the desire that we would recognize wrong from right and choose the latter. As young children, this meant that if a friend was getting picked on at school, we were expected to stand up for them. “Do what’s right” wasn’t always the easiest thing to do, especially as we got older and the lines between right and wrong seemed blurry at times. But my siblings and I all learned that whether it’s taking care of someone or being honest, it’s important to choose the right path, not the easiest one. We know that we have to be able to live with ourselves and the decisions we make.
4. Treat other people nicely. Our final family saying is a derivative of the Bible’s Golden Rule, which comes from two verses:
“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 7:12
“Do to others as you would have them do to you.” Luke 6:31
For my parents, it was extremely important for us to be kind. This included respecting one another, sharing, loving our neighbor, and even extended to treating ourselves well. It was a fundamental tenet that informed everything we did.
Having these sayings provided my parents with a touchstone to return to again and again, as teachable moments arose. It worked well because they created Family Sayings that spoke to the heart of who our family was (and is).
Every Family is Different
While these saying represent what was most important to my family, yours may look very different. We’d love to help you articulate what’s most important to YOU. Our next blog post will offer a step-by-step process to help you create your own family quotes or sayings.
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