My Firsts: A Money Story

I grew up in a family where we weren’t allowed to work as kids. My dad strongly kicked against the idea of his children working at a young age. We didn’t hawk, we didn’t have to do petty trading or any child labor. He always wanted to provide everything for my siblings and me. He didn’t even like the idea of giving us money as kids. My parents bought the things we needed.

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I had classmates who were given pocket money to bring to school instead of lunch bags. Sometimes, I envied them and wished my parents would give me the money instead of the food hehe. Also, I had some classmates who engaged in some petty trading in class, like selling sweets, biscuits etc without the teacher’s knowledge, and at that time, it was so cool because after the sales they had their money. But looking back, I understand why my father made that choice.

Seeing this prompt took me down memory lane, because my first earnings were in 2022, but my first pocket money was when I was in High school. I remember it so well because, that was the happiest day in my life. Because we were never given money, even when we had visitors around, they respected my dad’s command, so they usually handed the money over to my mom or my dad.

On that fateful day, my siblings just got back home from school. I had just three siblings then, we bathed, ate, and then we did our assignments. My dad came in and my mom joined him inside the room, but a few minutes later, we all got a call from my dad to join them in the room and then, there were crispy, shiny naira notes on the bed. He said we would use a ratio to divide the money.

Afterwards, he handed each of us, certain amounts and said “I will be giving you this amount every month as your pocket money”. We were so excited. Looking back, the money wasn’t much but the joy of getting our own money was everything, especially since it was one we didn’t have to work for hehe.. I was a master of snacks then, so I spent my pocket money on a lot of snacks. I still remember what I spent it on because that was the first money I could call my own as a kid.

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When it comes to my first earnings, that would be in 2022, when I worked as a Personal Assistant to my cousin. I had just finished University and was waiting to go for NYSC. I handled all his appointments, transactions, and numerous other tasks. The first month I received my earnings, I was so excited because I had worked for that money. I spent it on a very nice bag. I don’t think I would ever forget my first pocket money and my first earnings. Those were the best days of my life. Actually, any day I get money is the best day of my life hehe.

This is my entry to Indiaunited contest

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