Learning the basics of economics

The girls are working.

They have jobs as housekeepers for some friends who own a motel. Four or five days a week, they drive into town (Older Daughter now has her driver's license! She passed her driver's test with flying colors!), work, and then come home. Both are pleased to be earning money and are intelligently divvying their income between savings and spending. Older Daughter is the primary housekeeper, and when there are too many rooms for her to handle on her own, she "hires" Younger Daughter to assist. Younger Daughter also works as a groundskeeper for some neighbors when they're away traveling.

On the days they use the car, we charge Older Daughter $4 for gas (about how much it costs for each round trip into town). We are also requiring her to pay $50/month for her car insurance, which is tacked onto ours (insurance costs are low in Idaho). Such is Real Life.

Nonetheless the girls are earning money, and are having a lot of fun deciding what to do with it. Older Daughter is saving up for a car. Younger Daughter is socking away a lot of her earnings, also with the notion of a car in the distant future.

We opened up checking accounts for both kids so they can start learning the intricacies of handling their income -- the mechanics of deposits, withdrawals, debit card use, online banking, balancing a checkbook, etc.

With the (cough) "power" of a debit card to make online purchases, both kids spent a bit of money at first, primarily ordering books they've wanted. They're learning to set aside a certain amount of "play" money and not go beyond that amount without considering whether the purchase is really worth it.

I found it interesting that after a couple of fun days in town when the girls went to the grocery store and bought their lunches, they quickly realized how easy it is to fritter away their paycheck on unnecessary and temporary pleasures (such as deli food). Now every morning they diligently pack a lunch to bring with them.

I'm proud that our girls are developing a reputation for being hard workers. I'm also pleased that they're discovering, through their own efforts, the basics of Real Life economics.

Another driver!

I'm pleased to report that we have another driver in the house! Well, sorta.

Older Daughter (who just turned 18) went in this morning and took the written exam to get her Driver's Permit -- and passed 100%.

I realize 18 is old (by American standards) to get a driver's permit, but weirdly enough the fact that she was homeschooled threw the licensing department off. I don't know why, since there are homeschoolers all over this county, but there you go.

In fact back when she was 16, I called up the licensing department for our county, and the conversation went something like this:

Me: "I have a 16 year old homeschooled daughter who would like to get her driving permit. What do we need to do?"

Them: [The licensing department outlined the requirements, i.e. driver's ed, driver's training, minimum number of hours behind the wheel, etc.] "And she'll need proper documentation."

Me: "What kind of documentation?"

Them: "She'll need her social security card..."

Me: "No problem."

Them: "...and her birth certification..."

"Me: "No problem."

Them: "And a form of photo ID."

Me: "That's a problem. She doesn't have any."

Them: "Oh, a student ID is fine."

Me: "But she's homeschooled. She doesn't have a student ID."

Them: [Silence. A long silence.] "Oh."

As it turned out, this initial conversation led to additional conversations with county officials, then a call to Boise, then a call to the Homeschool Legal Defense Association, then another call to Boise, yet more calls to our county, etc.

It was a Catch-22: How do you get a form of photo ID without some preceding form of photo ID?

In the end we decided to wait until she was 18 before dealing with the bureaucracy. This meant we could skip driver's ed and driver's training (that is to say, we could supply those ourselves).

So today Don took her in for her test. We still had to provide her social security card and birth certificate... and you know what we used for a photo ID? A group picture from a newspaper clipping with her old Venture Scouts crew. Go figure.

So now Older Daughter will be getting behind the wheel a lot more than before. She's driven quite a bit on our non-county road, but of course speeds are very slow on a pothole-y country dirt road. She'll have to learn to drive at night, in the snow or rain, in icy conditions, etc.

What fun! (/sarc/)