About
The “Play Money” Wake-Up Call
A few weeks ago I was teaching my eldest son about money. It was an exercise on homework that my son's school had given.
To teach the concept of money, they were using play money and play coins. All I kept thinking to myself was, when was the last time that I ever used cash to pay for anything? That really was the genesis of a much larger exploration into the disconnect that I sometimes feel between what my sons are learning and the way that we are living, working, and playing today.
My Parenting Reality Check
Like most parents, I want my kids to be prepared for their future. But sitting there with those plastic coins, I realized I had no idea how to bridge the gap between what schools teach and what kids actually need to know.
I'm not an education expert. I don't have all the answers. What I do have is the same worry that keeps so many of us up at night: Are we preparing our children for the world they'll actually live in?
That homework assignment sent me down a rabbit hole of questions I couldn't shake. Why are we teaching kids about pennies when they're growing up in a world of digital payments, subscription services, and online economies? How do we explain credit scores, compound interest, or entrepreneurship using methods designed for a different era?
The Real Problem We're All Facing
The more I dug into this, the clearer it became: we're not just dealing with outdated curriculum. We're facing a fundamental mismatch between how we learned about money and how our kids need to learn about it.
Traditional financial education assumes a world that doesn't exist anymore. Meanwhile, our children are absorbing lessons about money from YouTube influencers, gaming platforms, and social media – often without any framework to understand what they're seeing.
We're caught between two worlds: the financial lessons we received (many of which still matter) and the digital-first reality our kids are inheriting. Most of us feel completely unprepared to navigate this gap.
What I'm Learning Along the Way
I started this newsletter because I needed to figure this out for my own family, and I suspected I wasn't alone.
I'm not here to lecture anyone about what they should be doing.
I'm here to share what I'm discovering, what's working (and what isn't), and to learn from the experiences of other parents who are figuring this out alongside me.
Some weeks, we'll dive into practical parenting strategies.
Other weeks, we'll explore how to make sense of digital trends that affect our families.
Always, we'll focus on preparing our kids for their future while honoring the values that matter to us today.
What We're Building Together
This newsletter is for parents who recognize that something needs to change but aren't sure where to start. It's for those of us who want to do better by our kids but feel overwhelmed by the pace of change in the world around us.
You'll find:
Real Talk About Modern Parenting – The challenges we're all facing, minus the Pinterest-perfect facade
Practical Strategies That Actually Work – Tested approaches for bridging the gap between old wisdom and new realities
Future-Ready Skills for Families – How to prepare kids for tomorrow without losing sight of what matters today
Community Wisdom – Insights from parents who are navigating these same waters
We're not trying to turn our kids into tiny entrepreneurs or financial experts. We're trying to raise children who can think critically, solve problems creatively, and navigate an uncertain future with confidence.
Let's Figure This Out Together
I don't have a master plan or a perfect system. What I have is curiosity, determination, and the belief that we can do better for our kids than hoping they'll figure it out on their own.
If you're a parent who's ever looked at your child's homework and wondered how it connects to the real world, this newsletter is for you. If you've ever felt behind on preparing your kids for their future, you're in good company.
We're all making this up as we go along. Let's at least do it together.
