When I was a child, I didn't realize that...

How many of you, who are now Adults, can say that when you were a child, you thought, as I did, that our parents could buy everything we asked them to. I remember too often the times I would be out shopping with my mother and saw her at times writing a check to pay for the purchases.

In my young mind, I assumed that when someone took out a checkbook and scribble on it, Shazam!, it automatically became miracle money. I didn't fully understand the concept of check writing other than what I witnessed and observed from my own mother.

It wasn't long thereafter until I got the awakening and lecture of 'checksonomics.'

Again I was out with my mother shopping and I had my eye on several things I wanted. I recall saying to my mother, 'can you buy these for me?' She replied, 'I cannot.' Then I asked the question most young children would, 'why not?' Mother said, 'because I don't have the extra money.' Now I didn't understand her answer because all I have witnessed from other shopping ventures was my mother taking out a book of checks and writing an amount, signing her name and then handing it over to the store clerk.

So now here stands my mother firmly saying, 'I don't have the extra money.'

Here is where I learned a most valuable lesson. I said to my mother, 'All you have to do is write a check and hand it over.'

My mother said, 'You must first have some money in your account before you can write a check. If there is no money there, then you cannot write a check.'

She didn't have to say it twice, because she said it the first time as though I was the adult, had a job, and a checking account in my own name. Her response came over very easy and that was the day I learned the value of a dollar.

Now that I am an Adult, I keep that story in my mind when I make purchases of any kind. I'm learning to make wise money decisions and not to over spend. I know in life emergencies happen unexpectedly, but most importantly, I try to pay for items as I go along and not charge or making foolish blunders. This has not always been the case, but when I was a child, I didn't realize how as an Adult, the words of my dear mother would yet resound in my ears today 40 years later.

'You must first have some money in your account before you can write a check. If there is no money there, then you cannot write a check.'

This is no longer a lesson about 'money,' but life in totality.

When I was a child, I didn't realize that...

What's your childhood story that has impacted you as an Adult?