A Lesson in Saving

One of the many things I did before moving from Brooklyn to Phoenix, I bought a tall, yellow piggy bank shaped like a crayon.

I spent several months filling it with a few pounds of spare change that I had amassed and then gifted it to my two nieces and nephew.

A natural mother and gifted teacher, my sister, Sara, waxed poetic to her kids about the importance of saving before giving them the gift.

The kids seemed as impressed by the noise the bright yellow skyscraper made when it was shaken as they were with the fact that they had trouble tipping it over.

I emptied the savings jar from my memory shortly after leaving town.

Today, Sara called and let me know that the kids had finally topped off the jar.

They had saved their pennies, nickels and dimes and were now en route to the toy store to purchase some new toys with the $335 they had collected. A savings lesson well learned, I thought.

My sister continued. The new toys would be donated to the children of a less fortunate family; her own kids were happy to do so.

Two-and-a-half years after Sara's kids were given the piggy bank with the intention of teaching them a lesson about saving, they had taught me a lesson in return. 

I saw the jar and thought $avings, they saw the same jar and saw savings. My sister's beautiful children received the gift and saved not money, but another's childhood.