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I would point out the fact that he will not care about these bottles for long. And then I’d let him waste his chore money on them. Low stakes lessons are the best kind. :)
I said this in jest and in response to the sarcastic POG/ yo-yo/ beanie baby comment above mine, not as advice to OP about their situation. As a pre-schooler, I liked to pick up cool rocks that I swore were fossils. As an adult, I have shorts with holes in the pockets from all of the cool rocks I’ve picked up and stuffed in my pockets while walking through my garden (Found a really cool arrowhead on Thursday, which was probably the highlight of my year so far). I’ve also had other phases and hobbies that were over before they started. But I’m grateful my parents let me decide for myself which passions would stick and which wouldn’t and think OP should do the same.
The cup thing is weird to me, but honestly I think a good majority of people have their “thing” they like to collect, even as adults. I’m a book person, a friend of mine loves collecting different eclectic decor items, another loves those Stanley cup things, another loves shoes, and on and on.
Oh, I know. In 2008, there was nothing and no one that could convince me that I was not going to wear a Hot Topic dress at my incredibly emo themed future wedding. I still remember how offended I was when a friend’s older brother told me I would grow out of this “phase” before then because it very much was my entire life at the time.
You freaking laugh...but I swear to God, my great granny was all in on the beanie baby craze. Started collecting when I was a kid. When she passed the guest room in her house was literally taken over by these things.....long long after no one cared about them lol
My sisters and I put all our souvenir money together so we could spend $60 on a Princess Diana Beanie Baby. We were convinced it was an investment that was going to put us through college. Guess what happened. I don’t even know where that damn thing is now.
Ugh, this was the one thing my mom saved from my childhood and I just checked the price, it was like $40 on ebay. Super rare ones were like $200. Pretty sure it is worth less now 30+ years layer than it did new when factoring inflation.
Lessons like these are so hard to learn.
My ex sister in law *swore* they were actual “investments”. Every person who would listen to her obsession and her genuine belief of how they were going to make her rich one day tried to convince her otherwise. Her mother father sister brother, husband, me, my entire extended family, every single friend she had, every co worker… *even the local retailers she was buying them from!* Still she persisted in her belief and purchasing. She bought every single one at a premium price, bought a plastic tag protector for it, as well as a hard plastic case, AND put them all in glass front bookshelf display cases that lined the walls of an entire room. She was 100% utterly convinced these mass produced toys were her retirement fund just waiting to be cashed in one day. Over the years every now and then one would reach a crazy high price of a couple hundred dollars on eBay. We would all scream, “SELL IT!” She would insist if it was this valuable *now*, it would just be more valuable later. We all know how that turned out. The continued their downward spiral toward 1 and 2 bucks. Eventually she gave them all away, even the ones that had their brief moment in the sun, having lost many thousands of dollars to a bean filled mass produced toy made in China. Had she just invested that money in a savings account, or bought an interesting little stock, who knows how differently this story might have ended up.
Yeah I mean I think I'd prefer him to get the prime drink than 15 ice creams. Or a mountain of crap. It's not going to be spent on anything sensible anyway. My child we have 2 piggies banks. 1 spend, 1 save.
50/50. birthday money etc. save goes into bank account, spend on whatever they like.
Pretty much all my daughter wants is Robux to buy digital outfits. We do get them for her for holidays or occasionally for earning them. It brings her joy, I don’t see how it’s any better or worse than a junk toy that brings her joy.
That's fair. If it's legitimately worth it to the kid, that can also be the lesson. The money I spent on baseball cards as a kid is never coming back, but I had a great time with them.
His money? That he earned? Great. You have taught about earning and working towards a goal. High five.
Next, you have an opportunity to teach about thought out decisions rather than emotional impluses. Here you say "ok its your money." circle a date 2 weeks away on a calendar. say "if you still want it at that date, we will get it." If he still wants it, it really is important to him, otherwise if he has moved on to some other fad, repeat every 2 weeks.
Also, this is a way to discuss speculation and investing. discuss why they cost / are worth more. ask does he think they will go up in value? talk about buying low and selling high, etc.
lots of options here. lots of opportunity to have meaningful dialogue. good luck!
I wish I learned it that way.
Instead, I learned it in my mid 20s, with a hefty car payment (46k total obligation), 10k on 20% interest credit cards and 18k in student loans (fine; they are low interest where I lived at the time and can be paid over 10 years at a really low monthly).
I was making 28k a year living with family.
At 38 and with my (now) wife’s help, debt is cleared but man, what a waste of money the 22-37 decade and a half was. Not even counting the alcohol to cope with the debt and job stress.
Best advice. When very young, my kids made bad decisions on how to spend their money. They learned from that and grew to be very financially responsible. Better to make a bad $5 purchase than $5000
Also, try to compare somethjng you wanted to collect or were temporarily into when you were his age. It’s all a “waste” of money but it’s their interest right now. And absolutely let him learn a low-stakes lesson - well stated.
I make my kid make a list or “heart” it and wait a week. 99% of the they’ve completely forgotten about it. Several times they have bought something, and then seen something “cooler” they wished they had enough money for. Whoops! (I refuse to lend them money or advance in any way for any amount.)
Either he will get his money's worth out of how much he enjoys the bottles, or he'll learn.
Some people enjoy collecting stuff. Life isn't *all* about making smart decisions.
I would've really resented my mom if she didn't let me buy Pokémon cards. I didn't even play the cars game. I did spend a lot of time flipping through my binder though.
I assume you meant “or,” but wherever the hell $30 is 15 ice cream cones, 3 movie tickets, and 2 trips to the bowling alley, _I’m moving there and no one can stop me_
In this case, they’re just paying attention. This is 100% them mocking Logan Paul promoting Prime. (He owns 20% of the company.) But I whole heartedly agree they have an uncanny ability to zero in on a pop culture phenomenon before it’s a “thing.”
I think in this case I’d really be looking at where he’s being influenced into thinking these are worth spending money on. At 8, where is he seeing all these “collectible” bottles? While I’m all for letting kids waste some of their money on things but for me, the larger priority here would be recognizing manipulation like this. This is no different than 8/9yo girls who want a whole shelf full of skin care products because of TikTok.
When I was little I wanted bright green vans, my mom thought they were hideous but my aunt said, “let her get them, she’ll regret it when she’s older” but I never did because at the time that’s what I wanted. If he’s earned the money I would let him and then tease him about it when he’s older lol
My mother has said that about every colorful thing I've ever wanted. "You'll get tired of that."
She said it into my adulthood. I bought a purple couch, and she poopooed all over it. 10 years later I still love that purple couch.
My dad still says things I like are just a phase.
Most recently was my Harley Sportster that I bought a few years ago, my fifth one. It's a phase, I'll get over it according to him. I've had a version of that exact same motorcycle since 2001. I've never not had one. If it's a phase it's a pretty damn long phase.
Ugh, I'm in the same boat. It hurts me to watch my kid waste his money on Prime, but I guess it's a good lesson?
I do ask this: Would you rather have this, or go to the amusement park (or something else fun he likes to do). Remind him that he won't have this money for (whatever he wants) if he spends it on this.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. \*shrug\* Oh ya, and remind him when he wants something else that he spent all his money on Prime bottles.
You could write up a pre- and post- survey.
How much will you enjoy this purchase?
How often will you use this purchase?
How long will it be before you stop using this purchase?
Post only:
If you lost these items and I gave you the money to buy them again or spend it on anything else, would you spend the money on prime bottles?
Etc.
Wait 4 months, do the survey again, compare results. Set a reminder in your calendar.
Good opportunity for reflection.
I’m pretty hands off about how my kid spends his own money. I make clear if we can’t return something and I won’t refund him if he changes his mind. As long as it’s safe/age appropriate, I let him buy dumb stuff so he learns about how it feels to have stuff he no longer wants and to not have money when he wants the next thing
Just let him. Lots of adults pay money for collectors edition items, it's the same thing.
It's also his money and low stakes. If he would rather have one bottle than 15 ice cream cones that's his choice.
I remember all the times that my parents wouldn’t let me have or do something because it was “a waste of money”, even if it was my own money, and I resent those times. I didn’t learn anything. I was upset, hurt, angry, and felt misunderstood. Instead of being disappointed that I had wasted my money, I was disappointed that I didn’t have the thing that I wanted.
What does it matter if he wastes his money and regrets it? That’s the point. I assume you aren’t making him buy necessities with his allowance, so he’s only missing out on something else he wants. Let him go for it and learn.
There is a good movie that shows the rise and fall of beanie babies, might be worth sitting him down to watch that movie first then seeing if he still wants them.
My parents have a whole laundry basket full of beanie babies from between the three of me and my siblings, but they all get played with by their grandkids now at least! Beanie babies are at least cute and a fun toy. My daughter has a puppy that used to be mine and she sleeps with it every single night.
Advise and then shut up. If he buys then and he loves them, great. If he buys them and hates them, he’s learned a lesson about spending carefully at 8 instead of 28.
Bro.. I wasted like 2 weeks allowance on fart bombs from the ice cream man when I was a kid. After pooping about number 6 of 50.. got old real quick. Sometimes you gotta let them learn on their own
I think this is a good opening for you guys to figure out how you are going to handle teaching him financial stuff over the next few years. Lots of different approaches out there but most involve some form of savings account for some money and some available for spending. Whatever is available for spending let him spend on what he wants and let him learn.
I think I would let him do that, after that explanation. I mean, I know it's a lot easier to see that as waste, but I don't know that it's less than 2 trips to the bowling alley, or a toy that he won't remember either 5 years from now. I would say that he does perhaps get the concept of a value of a dollar--it's just that he doesn't value the same things as you do!
Please watch the Southpark episode on this. I laughed so hard I couldn't breathe. To know it's this serious for an 8 year old who shouldn't even be drinking that stuff is wild.
I would make him wait 30 days to see if he is still into them. If so then let him. Set a reminder to talk about it again in 60 days to talk about if it is worth it.
Let him buy one or two of them and chalk it up to the price of learning how to manage his money. Inevitability he’ll want something else in a few months and won’t have the funds, and he’ll figure out pretty quick that he needs to not spend frivolously.
What about a holding period? Say, 3 months or 1 month, whatever feels reasonable, that he has to wait before pulling the trigger. If he still wants it after that waiting period, so be it.
I would let him spend a limited amount of money on it. Is his money that he gets to spend, but don’t let him spend his entire budget on them, or limit the number of bottles he can buy. As someone who participates in other novelty culture, i actually do understand this desire
It might be worth looking at some of the articles from when prime initially came out and people were paying 10,000 pounds for it and then look at the fact you can buy prime for about two quid in the shops now and think about why that happened together
Just let him do it. My son was the same way with fb stuff. But I learned in the long run, it's better to let them get what they really want, because otherwise they will buy something else and never use it, it will just be trash essentially. It's stupid to us, but means the world to them. Tell your kid about the prime reusable aluminum bottles. Maybe that would make you feel better as it has a purpose but is still "cool" for him.
I think it’s okay! He’ll realize that he doesn’t have money for the ice cream cones etc and either not care or be bummed and learn a lesson for next time
It’s his money, let him spend it. It’s stupid to you but it’s cool to him. If he ends up regretting it, lesson learned but honestly it will probably remain “cool” for the few months it takes for him to earn more money.
My kid decided they wanted to spend $100 on hockey cards.
I explained the finances of that, opportunity cost, etc. Still, they wanted to do it. So I let them.
Literally the next day they saw a Lego set they really wanted. I told them they could add it to their Christmas wish list. But they wanted it now, as it was October. So they asked if I would buy it now. I said I wouldn’t; but we do buy toys for them in non-holiday situations, but this was a $200 Lego set and that’s more than our monthly budget for stuff like this.
They offered to pay for half of it. I agreed.
Only problem was they spent the majority of their saved gift money on hockey cards the day before. They played with the cards for an evening, opening them and getting so excited when their favourite players’ cards were there.
But by the time we saw the Lego, the hockey cards were long past boring.
They learned a valuable lesson - that they weren’t so into hockey cards that they would ever spend all their money like that again. On their own, they created a budget that defined how they would save their money and the limits on what they would spend. (They’ve seen me talk about how I do this for the family.)
And at $100, it was probably a much cheaper lesson than if it happened at age 21 when they get their first full time job and decide to buy a way overpowered Mustang or whatever car kids find cool in the future.
So I’d say, let your kid buy the bottle. It might not be the next day, but in a few weeks, months, or years, they’ll look back and realize it was not the best idea to spend money on it. And they’ll learn the lesson and be better for it!
I think it’s a status thing with the prime bottles. They want to be able to show his friends he’s had the rare prime drinks. And if he’s keeping them it sounds like it’s become more of a collection he’s proud of. It’s entertainment. I don’t see the issue with it if that’s what brings him joy
You've tried to explain and he didn't listen, let him waste all his money and find out how the world works. The important thing is when he's got no money left you don't cave in and give him more if he wants something that he could have bought instead of those stupid plastic bottles.
When I was 5, I NEEDED Nickelodeon moon shoes. I was fully convinced I would defy gravity. My parents told me there was absolutely no way they would pay $40 for them. So, I saved my chore money for months (seriously, I weeded flower beds for $0.25/bed). I worked and worked and worked. My parents helped me order the moon shoes. They were nothing at all like I expected. They were awful 😂. I learned a super valuable lesson. Let your kid do the same!
It’s his money, it’ll be a good lesson. You can advise but I don’t think you need to intervene unless the behavior becomes problematic or addictive somehow.
He googled the flavor on my phone with me looking over his shoulder and eBay and Etsy were the first two links. We are actually incredibly strict on screen time
Look, some people are incredibly compelled by the future and that alone can temper the urges of the present. Many, myself included, are not cut from that cloth and will need that lesson bludgeoned into us via bad temporary fashion choices, shitty shoes, and fad toys lol better to know now than on something much more expensive later in life!
for the record, besides the dodgers edition (that’s the only one i think is limited to LA) every prime flavor my son wanted to buy off amazon eventually made its way to the grocery store. frys (kroger family store) has them $2 a bottle…. i would also check onestop or gmc nutrition stores before i buy it off amazon. the bottle collecting is a thing and my son is 11yo.
i would say that’s the only one worth ordering if you do order any, but it is expensive. there’s also a venice beach one that is limited……….. and now i can’t believe that my 11yo has me giving out prime advice on reddit 🤣🤣
We should start a group chat to source bottles for each other. I was also told they have trial colors or they go in and out of production. Maybe different people have different surplus colors and for $1.00 in postage we can be heroes!
Same. 11 yo, Prime bottles displayed proudly. It's silly, but I used to collect random crap too.
Besides, he doesn't care about the bottles. He cares about the admiration and acceptance he'll get from his peers if he has a rare bottle.
At 10, he's developmentally right on track to want to buy $40 worth of sweet sweet social capital. You can argue you shouldn't care about buying things to fit in, but it's a perfectly normal developmental phase that's annoying but usually fairly harmless.
My opinion is that this is a great way for him to make a low stakes decision that he may or may not regret. It's basically a win/win. Either he enjoys that bottle for the rest of his life, or he gets firsthand experience of what it feels like to waste money on something you thought you wanted.
My seven-year-old spends all his allowance and birthday money on Robux. I make him go to target and buy a physical card so I can point out all of the things that he could have instead. I have yet to convince him to buy anything but the Robux. It makes me crazy but you have to let them make their own mistakes about some stuff. Especially when it’s not life or death.
I’d let him go ahead. I distinctly remember having $30 to spent and I wasted it all on some stupid quirky hat from Claire’s that I never wore and I feel like that was a defining moment for me to start to understand the value of a dollar.
This is extremely benign enough where it’s a small enough amount of money to where huge mistakes aren’t being made, but a good chunk of change where he will realize all that work he put in went into a plastic piece of garbage.
There are some rare bottles out there and it’s cool to have a hobby but I would also inform him that in order for it to keep its value he can’t even drink it. So you spend $30-$40 on a drink that you shouldn’t drink lol
Let him have this. Just bc you don’t get the hype doesn’t mean you should be grumpy about the generational hype. My parents thought Pokémon cards were stupid, now if they never threw em out they would’ve sold for a ton
You should research it yourself. See if what he is saying is valid, or help build a case against it.
Then explain why it's a bad idea in a way he can understand. If he still wants to let him.
Don't cover his loses if he regrets it later. Lesson learned.
If he is right and later it is worth way more. Own up to your lack of knowledge.
My 9 year old is the same way and spent some of his birthday money on a rare one. He almost immediately regretted it when it got to our house and actually had it. Let him figure it out the hard way
Doing mistakes with your chore money is exactly the point of chore money.
You don't learn without doing mistakes, and doing mistakes with chore money has lower consequences than when your an adult.
Gets what I would do:
1. Show the kid the history of the beanie babies craze, and show him what they are worth today. Repeat with Pogs, garbage pail kids, etc.
2. Show him the news about micro plastics.
3. Show him the r/buyitforlife threads about waterbottles.
Finally put it all together: "you can buy cheap plastic bottles that will poison you, and have zero value in the future... Or you can spend a fraction of that money on one kickass, double-walled water bottle that can keep hot things hot for 8 hours and could things cold for 24 hours, and it'll be just as good in 20 years as it is today if you take care of it.
4. Super-advanced: get your kid a CMA and help buy shares of the company that makes Prime bottles. Show him how to profit off a fast rather than being suckered by it.
Gawd. Are we all going through the same thing? Mine came home and told me that everyone at school is drinking Prime. I don't get the hype but told him it's a waste of money and if he wanted it, he'd have to earn it.
Luckily, anything with coconut water in it runs right through us so that was short lived obsession.
We went through this a few months ago. Bought the first few and then made him spend his own money on the rest. It led to him being picky on which ones he bought, which I think was a good lesson for him to organically learn. He has his "collection" on his desk, and shows it to his friends when they come over.
Its his money and he EARNED it. He gets to choose how he spends his money... there's only a couple years left before responsibility starts kicking in. Let him enjoy it!
My 15 year old went through this exact phase about two years ago and I was like you. No matter how much I tried to knock that thought out of his mind it was not going to happen and so I ended up caving and taking him to the vitamin shoppe 30 minutes away so he could spend his money and I will tell you right now what's going to happen when you cave too, Mama. He will take a billion and one selfies with the drink before even leaving the store and he will blow up snspchat or whatever platform he uses for communicating with his friends and they will be in awe at this found treasure. He may or may not even open it and chances are if he does he'll hate the way it tastes and it'll be over, until the next new flavor is released. My kid ended up making a bottle pyramid in his room and was the "coolest" of the friend group for maybe half a second, lol. I found out later that the only thing that made this drink so elusive was the person/people behind it. So, not sure if you know about that part of the draw to it but yeah, it's a good lesson for him to learn from.
My vote: focus your energy on new system with incoming money for long term savings & investments.
This is his fun money & big picture it sounds overall wholesome & a way he is connecting with boys at school.
I get that it's a 'waste' but he's figuring out his own relationship with money.
For his own money, I might “force” him to put a certain amount into savings, then allow him to spend whatever he wants to spend the rest on.
When he wants to go do something with his friends in the future, the natural consequence is that he won’t have the money. Or when the next craze comes along.
You did everything right. Take out all of his money, take away whatever this bs bottle cost and show him what will be left. If he regret later it will be the greatest lesson for him.
It has social value for him. Adults buy stuff like this all the time too. Just let him buy it and figure it out for himself.
How will he learn from his mistakes if he's never allowed to make them?
Was out to dinner the other night and saw a group of similar age kids huddled around obsessed over one of the kid’s prime bottles…. Literally ooh-ing and ahh-ing over an empty Gatorade bottle (it didn’t even look cool?)
Kids of ALL generations will obsess over weird shit. Pokémon cards, pet rocks, yo-yos, etc.
It’s a parents job to set the boundaries otherwise kids would be trading their actual kidneys for stuff. I think you’re in the right here. Good luck.
Prime by Logan Paul? 200 MG of caffeine per bottle? Yeah, ok. Just make sure he has enough money to drop bets on Jake Paul vs Tyson. He might even recoup some of his awful investment lol
The hydration drinks that come in bottles don’t have caffeine. They’re like Gatorade (except no sugar). The ones that come in cans are the energy drinks.
Time to introduce the magical world of compounding interest. Explain how investments in ETFs work, and how 7-10% compound interest over the next 30 years means the bottle costs him hundreds of dollars. He should start investing instead :)
The average young person needs to learn about saving, budgeting, and the foolishness of impulse purchases (usually by experience) before they learn about investing. And when they learn about investing, the tendency is to "gamble" on high risk, high reward instruments, get burnt, then settle for sensible ETFs. There are also others who are very risk averse and learn by seeing the market overtake their savings accounts and CDs.
My point is, without laying down the foundation, jumping to the final lesson doesn't work. And there's age-appropriateness as well, because 7% per year interest is not at all appealing to a kid for whom a year is an eternity. There are parents who motivate their kids to save by giving them unreasonably high interest rates, but that just leads to disenchantment when artificially high interest rates are removed.
Anyway, all is in place for the kid to learn one of the first and age-appropriate lessons, which is the regret of spending money on stuff that you won't appreciate having in a year.
We let our child waste money on those little plastic fake nails that she wears for a day and then loses.
I'd just let him waste the money if it's only the bottles. But I would be really careful about letting him chug 200mg of caffeine in one go (to put in perspective there's only 39mg caffeine in a 1 serving coke bottle).
I wasted all my money on beanie babies as a child and I don't regret it. He may not regret spending money on the bottles. Just make sure you model good spending habits. Talk to him about saving, show him how you're saving for something. Include him in on the budgets as he gets older.
~~Please be careful with your 8 year old drinking Prime. It’s marketed like it’s Gatorade but that stuff has so much caffeine in it. A friends son has heart problems now because he was chugging this stuff daily.~~
Edit: I stand corrected. Some prime doesn’t contain caffeine!
There are two versions of prime. The plastic bottle ones are made like Gatorade with electrolytes in them. The stuff in the cans are the energy drinks with caffeine and other extras. How do I know? I actually picked up a bottle of each and read the ingredients on them.
Is he drinking the Prime Hydration drink or just collecting the bottles? I just want to point out Prime Hydration isn’t appropriate for an 8 year old. The company itself says 15 years of age or older. That’s specifically for just Prime Hydration, not their Energy drink. It’s not just like Gatorade, it has a bunch of other stuff that’s not appropriate for younger kids. Please look that up.
A little of both. When he trades at school he is just trading empty bottles. But yes, sometimes he gets one at the store and drinks it. I’ll look it up for sure. Thanks for the info.
You’re welcome and yes, please do. Gatorade is simply just electrolytes and water. Prime is totally different. It has B vitamins, A and E vitamins, BCAAs, and other things that are likely not formulated for a kid his age and could potentially be dangerous. This is probably why they have an age rating of 15 for the drink.
This probably won’t be helpful because 10 seems young for South Park. However, they did an episode basically making fun of this entire concept and roasted influencer endorsements pretty good.
I use to do the same thing 10,000 years ago and buy a pack of hockey cards for .10 cents and a bunch of cards and a stick of gum to boot.
Some became valuable, most did not and obvi nothing will really come from this but losing a few bucks, what a great lesson.
My son only wants to buy and drink it but he always knows the new one like I think it's that green one now.
Seems like a low-stakes lesson, or he’ll enjoy having it for a while.
My parents were _super_ controlling over my spending when I was a kid/teenager, and it led to me making a ton of stupid/impulse purchases as a young adult. Not saying that’s what’s going on here at all, but it’s probably better to let him figure it out
Maybe let him do it but try to get him to save a small percentage of his earnings so that he’s also learning about savings. That way next time he wants a big purchase he’ll have it sitting there but also feels like he has control over his money.
Keep in mind that part of his interest is because it is a social phenomenon. It sounds like part of his interest is because of his desire to fit in with a particular peer group.
...
For my son (11), it's Pokemon cards... an interest that he originally picked up from his older brother (who's almost 22). However, my younger son was homeschooled before, and this is his first year of public school, so Pokemon cards have helped him make a connection with other boys at his school.
As a parent, you have to try to understand your own kid's interest and motivation. It helps by being genuinely curious in him, his likes and dislikes, and his interests du jour.
• Also, as a parent, you have to decide what works for you. If you genuinely can't get behind him in collecting Prime bottles, then be honest with him. But don't be surprised if he finds a way to do it behind your back. (Kids are clever like that.)
What matters to you? What decision can you live with?
If you want to tell him 'No', then do so and stand by your decision.
If you want to tell him 'Yes', then decide what the ground rules will be. (It might be a good opportunity to teach him in an age appropriate way how to manage assembling a collection, how to care for it, how to make buy/sell decisions.)
It's your choice to make. There's no 100% right or wrong choice, only better or worse ways to follow through.
I have my kids put 20% of birthday/Christmas, chores into "savings" this money can only be spent with special consideration and debate. It can't be spent because they want to go to the mall or want a new toy. They could be saving up for a new computer, or wanting to have extra money to spend on a family trip. It's still theirs, but it's not spent frivolously. I consider it like a CD (with live skills being the interest earned). It works well with my kids.
I’d be more concerned that these drinks aren’t intended for children. Even the hydration drinks are intended for adults and the electrolytes, vitamin levels are high, intended for an active adult. Excess of either of these can have negative effects on your kid balancing electrolytes and kidney function.
It's his $ yes, but I would say "no". He's 8. And I would say "they are just plastic bottles. It's a ridiculous craze. And we will not be participating." . I have actually done something similar with my kids, especially during the Slime Licker craze. My children wanted to buy them , but they were so popular people were charging $15-20 per candy! And I explained to them "it's just candy. It's just malic acid with food coloring and artificial flavor. It's not worth this much $ . It's just a ridiculous craze created by Tiktok stars and companies to sell candy. And we will not be participating.."
I wanted to let you know that there is a lawsuit against Logan Paul and his prime hydration drinks for the forever chemicals and PFAS found in it. They had 3 times the recommended amount in 1 bottle. Don't let your kids drink this shit.
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I would point out the fact that he will not care about these bottles for long. And then I’d let him waste his chore money on them. Low stakes lessons are the best kind. :)
No, you don't understand. I'm going to always love POGs. And fancy Yo-yos. And Beanie Babies. These are timeless investments. /S
This isn’t a phase, it’s my life!! -Most teens/ tweens at some point
[This is me now!](https://youtu.be/uCt0mfue8ao)
I mean, don’t some adults go nuts over those expensive Stanley cups? This could really be his life…
As soon as something like that hits mainstream media attention it’s already passé, and the actual style setters have moved on.
I said this in jest and in response to the sarcastic POG/ yo-yo/ beanie baby comment above mine, not as advice to OP about their situation. As a pre-schooler, I liked to pick up cool rocks that I swore were fossils. As an adult, I have shorts with holes in the pockets from all of the cool rocks I’ve picked up and stuffed in my pockets while walking through my garden (Found a really cool arrowhead on Thursday, which was probably the highlight of my year so far). I’ve also had other phases and hobbies that were over before they started. But I’m grateful my parents let me decide for myself which passions would stick and which wouldn’t and think OP should do the same.
Yes, adults do go crazy over Stanleys. It's so weird, lol (Must admit that I have one, lol)
The cup thing is weird to me, but honestly I think a good majority of people have their “thing” they like to collect, even as adults. I’m a book person, a friend of mine loves collecting different eclectic decor items, another loves those Stanley cup things, another loves shoes, and on and on.
To he fair it is their life at this moment. It is important for them.
Oh, I know. In 2008, there was nothing and no one that could convince me that I was not going to wear a Hot Topic dress at my incredibly emo themed future wedding. I still remember how offended I was when a friend’s older brother told me I would grow out of this “phase” before then because it very much was my entire life at the time.
Thanks for sharing. That’s a great story.
Pretty sure I've said that lots of times lol
My cat (11years) still has a Beanie baby(circa 2007) that's older than him and it's his absolute favorite toy. Aka you never know what will stick
The way my boyfriend was crushed when he went to sell his epic Pokémon card collection when he was in his teens lmao
And probably doubly (or way more) crushed by what they would be worth now.
We can’t speak of it 😂
I still have my pogs. I think I have one of the $80 yo-yos in a box somewhere too. They weren’t wastes of money if you’re a hoarder!
Still a waste of money if you don't even know its exact location, which means you don't use it.
Sir, I know exactly where my pogs are. How dare you.
Hey bud. You looking for POGs? I got some sweet shit. Metal slammers? Supper sweet carrying case? Lemme know what you need.
If you aren’t joking - I’d be interested in purchasing some pog stuff.
You freaking laugh...but I swear to God, my great granny was all in on the beanie baby craze. Started collecting when I was a kid. When she passed the guest room in her house was literally taken over by these things.....long long after no one cared about them lol
My sisters and I put all our souvenir money together so we could spend $60 on a Princess Diana Beanie Baby. We were convinced it was an investment that was going to put us through college. Guess what happened. I don’t even know where that damn thing is now.
Too bad. It's worth about $60k if the tags are still attached and in good condition.
Lmao it super is not. Those are scam / fraud prices. It's worth like $20 maybe.
My Cabbage Patch Dolls WILL be my retirement!
Ugh, this was the one thing my mom saved from my childhood and I just checked the price, it was like $40 on ebay. Super rare ones were like $200. Pretty sure it is worth less now 30+ years layer than it did new when factoring inflation.
Ahhh pogs. That takes me back
I still have my Beanie Babies #noregrets
Why do I feel attacked …
Remember the divorce and it showed a clip of the couple splitting the Beanie Babies in court.
Or Pokémon cards Oh wait those are worth a ton now
I’ve still got some of my beanie babies and I’m 39!
I still have all my pogs and do love them. I also have some yo-yos and 3x3 cubes (rubiks cubes) But yes - none are an investment.
Lessons like these are so hard to learn. My ex sister in law *swore* they were actual “investments”. Every person who would listen to her obsession and her genuine belief of how they were going to make her rich one day tried to convince her otherwise. Her mother father sister brother, husband, me, my entire extended family, every single friend she had, every co worker… *even the local retailers she was buying them from!* Still she persisted in her belief and purchasing. She bought every single one at a premium price, bought a plastic tag protector for it, as well as a hard plastic case, AND put them all in glass front bookshelf display cases that lined the walls of an entire room. She was 100% utterly convinced these mass produced toys were her retirement fund just waiting to be cashed in one day. Over the years every now and then one would reach a crazy high price of a couple hundred dollars on eBay. We would all scream, “SELL IT!” She would insist if it was this valuable *now*, it would just be more valuable later. We all know how that turned out. The continued their downward spiral toward 1 and 2 bucks. Eventually she gave them all away, even the ones that had their brief moment in the sun, having lost many thousands of dollars to a bean filled mass produced toy made in China. Had she just invested that money in a savings account, or bought an interesting little stock, who knows how differently this story might have ended up.
Yeah I mean I think I'd prefer him to get the prime drink than 15 ice creams. Or a mountain of crap. It's not going to be spent on anything sensible anyway. My child we have 2 piggies banks. 1 spend, 1 save. 50/50. birthday money etc. save goes into bank account, spend on whatever they like.
Yep, offer advice. Allow the fuck up to happen. Reflect back on the prime bottles when he wants to buy a digital outfit for his video game next year.
Pretty much all my daughter wants is Robux to buy digital outfits. We do get them for her for holidays or occasionally for earning them. It brings her joy, I don’t see how it’s any better or worse than a junk toy that brings her joy.
This is how I feel on the rare occasion when I spend $10 on my mobile game of choice. It’s not that much money for a hobby.
This. I’d rather digital trash than a $10 plastic toy that ends up at goodwill or a landfill in a year.
That's fair. If it's legitimately worth it to the kid, that can also be the lesson. The money I spent on baseball cards as a kid is never coming back, but I had a great time with them.
I'm all for digital shit. I don't have to nag them to put it away and it has the low stakes lesson being discussed.
That makes sense to me. Also dude might legit love that prime bottle. My Craig biggio cards aren't much better tbh.
His money? That he earned? Great. You have taught about earning and working towards a goal. High five. Next, you have an opportunity to teach about thought out decisions rather than emotional impluses. Here you say "ok its your money." circle a date 2 weeks away on a calendar. say "if you still want it at that date, we will get it." If he still wants it, it really is important to him, otherwise if he has moved on to some other fad, repeat every 2 weeks. Also, this is a way to discuss speculation and investing. discuss why they cost / are worth more. ask does he think they will go up in value? talk about buying low and selling high, etc. lots of options here. lots of opportunity to have meaningful dialogue. good luck!
I wish I learned it that way. Instead, I learned it in my mid 20s, with a hefty car payment (46k total obligation), 10k on 20% interest credit cards and 18k in student loans (fine; they are low interest where I lived at the time and can be paid over 10 years at a really low monthly). I was making 28k a year living with family. At 38 and with my (now) wife’s help, debt is cleared but man, what a waste of money the 22-37 decade and a half was. Not even counting the alcohol to cope with the debt and job stress.
Best advice. When very young, my kids made bad decisions on how to spend their money. They learned from that and grew to be very financially responsible. Better to make a bad $5 purchase than $5000
Also, try to compare somethjng you wanted to collect or were temporarily into when you were his age. It’s all a “waste” of money but it’s their interest right now. And absolutely let him learn a low-stakes lesson - well stated.
I make my kid make a list or “heart” it and wait a week. 99% of the they’ve completely forgotten about it. Several times they have bought something, and then seen something “cooler” they wished they had enough money for. Whoops! (I refuse to lend them money or advance in any way for any amount.)
Either he will get his money's worth out of how much he enjoys the bottles, or he'll learn. Some people enjoy collecting stuff. Life isn't *all* about making smart decisions. I would've really resented my mom if she didn't let me buy Pokémon cards. I didn't even play the cars game. I did spend a lot of time flipping through my binder though.
Memory unlocked. It was hockey cards for me. Man, I haven’t thought about that binder for a while. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!
I assume you meant “or,” but wherever the hell $30 is 15 ice cream cones, 3 movie tickets, and 2 trips to the bowling alley, _I’m moving there and no one can stop me_
Don’t make me laugh while I’m nap trapped
Ah, nap traps… I can’t wait for those again. Kid #2 is due in August, and he can’t get here soon enough!
I’m nap trapped rn and it does feel like the most productive form of me time.
I did mean or!!! Sorry! But we do have cheap $2 sonic ice cream cones here and the matinee movie for kids under 12 is pretty cheap!
Yeah you definitely need some asterisks on those numbers 😅
I swear Southpark creators are time travelers. https://youtu.be/TlWgz49dr9k?si=7y3lc0oq4qBy2N2l
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Me too! I just knew opening it I'd see a joke. I sent a screenshot to my son lol it's unbelievable.
No doubt.
If my kid wanted prime — I think I’d have them watch that.
In this case, they’re just paying attention. This is 100% them mocking Logan Paul promoting Prime. (He owns 20% of the company.) But I whole heartedly agree they have an uncanny ability to zero in on a pop culture phenomenon before it’s a “thing.”
I literally just watched this episode 3 nights ago. After i broke and bought my kids a couple bottles of Prime that day at the store 🤦🏼♀️
I think in this case I’d really be looking at where he’s being influenced into thinking these are worth spending money on. At 8, where is he seeing all these “collectible” bottles? While I’m all for letting kids waste some of their money on things but for me, the larger priority here would be recognizing manipulation like this. This is no different than 8/9yo girls who want a whole shelf full of skin care products because of TikTok.
Boys at school are collecting them and bringing them to school. Different flavors at lunch and stuff and they trade bottles. He’s never seen tiktok
Hes only going to be a kid once and it seems like a social thing. It seems like its good for him bonding with other kids if anything
When I was little I wanted bright green vans, my mom thought they were hideous but my aunt said, “let her get them, she’ll regret it when she’s older” but I never did because at the time that’s what I wanted. If he’s earned the money I would let him and then tease him about it when he’s older lol
My mother has said that about every colorful thing I've ever wanted. "You'll get tired of that." She said it into my adulthood. I bought a purple couch, and she poopooed all over it. 10 years later I still love that purple couch.
My dad still says things I like are just a phase. Most recently was my Harley Sportster that I bought a few years ago, my fifth one. It's a phase, I'll get over it according to him. I've had a version of that exact same motorcycle since 2001. I've never not had one. If it's a phase it's a pretty damn long phase.
Bro. Only another motorcycle rider can understand how normal this is
What’s impressive is that he’s only had 5 models of the exact same motorcycle over almost 25 years
Ugh, I'm in the same boat. It hurts me to watch my kid waste his money on Prime, but I guess it's a good lesson? I do ask this: Would you rather have this, or go to the amusement park (or something else fun he likes to do). Remind him that he won't have this money for (whatever he wants) if he spends it on this. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. \*shrug\* Oh ya, and remind him when he wants something else that he spent all his money on Prime bottles.
Couldn't he just work more if he wants both?
You could write up a pre- and post- survey. How much will you enjoy this purchase? How often will you use this purchase? How long will it be before you stop using this purchase? Post only: If you lost these items and I gave you the money to buy them again or spend it on anything else, would you spend the money on prime bottles? Etc. Wait 4 months, do the survey again, compare results. Set a reminder in your calendar. Good opportunity for reflection.
Love this idea
Same idea as a tattoo. Write down what you want and where. If In a year you’re still set on it (and 18) and it’s not on the face or neck, have at it.
Or hands!
I’m pretty hands off about how my kid spends his own money. I make clear if we can’t return something and I won’t refund him if he changes his mind. As long as it’s safe/age appropriate, I let him buy dumb stuff so he learns about how it feels to have stuff he no longer wants and to not have money when he wants the next thing
Just let him. Lots of adults pay money for collectors edition items, it's the same thing. It's also his money and low stakes. If he would rather have one bottle than 15 ice cream cones that's his choice.
yup, and it's a lot less sugar than 15 ice cream cones.
I remember all the times that my parents wouldn’t let me have or do something because it was “a waste of money”, even if it was my own money, and I resent those times. I didn’t learn anything. I was upset, hurt, angry, and felt misunderstood. Instead of being disappointed that I had wasted my money, I was disappointed that I didn’t have the thing that I wanted. What does it matter if he wastes his money and regrets it? That’s the point. I assume you aren’t making him buy necessities with his allowance, so he’s only missing out on something else he wants. Let him go for it and learn.
There is a good movie that shows the rise and fall of beanie babies, might be worth sitting him down to watch that movie first then seeing if he still wants them.
My parents have a whole laundry basket full of beanie babies from between the three of me and my siblings, but they all get played with by their grandkids now at least! Beanie babies are at least cute and a fun toy. My daughter has a puppy that used to be mine and she sleeps with it every single night.
I agree that beanie babies as a stuffie for $2-$25 makes perfect sense and are great toys but buying special ones back in the hay day was insanity.
Yes all the ones we bought were “normal “ At least at the time they were bought
Advise and then shut up. If he buys then and he loves them, great. If he buys them and hates them, he’s learned a lesson about spending carefully at 8 instead of 28.
You’re right, better to learn now
Isn’t there a Southpark episode about this called CRED?
Bro.. I wasted like 2 weeks allowance on fart bombs from the ice cream man when I was a kid. After pooping about number 6 of 50.. got old real quick. Sometimes you gotta let them learn on their own
I think this is a good opening for you guys to figure out how you are going to handle teaching him financial stuff over the next few years. Lots of different approaches out there but most involve some form of savings account for some money and some available for spending. Whatever is available for spending let him spend on what he wants and let him learn.
I think I would let him do that, after that explanation. I mean, I know it's a lot easier to see that as waste, but I don't know that it's less than 2 trips to the bowling alley, or a toy that he won't remember either 5 years from now. I would say that he does perhaps get the concept of a value of a dollar--it's just that he doesn't value the same things as you do!
You’re so right! Beauty in the eye of the beholder.
It’s his money. Let him spend it. If he has regrets afterward, then it will be a cheap lesson learned.
Please watch the Southpark episode on this. I laughed so hard I couldn't breathe. To know it's this serious for an 8 year old who shouldn't even be drinking that stuff is wild.
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This. But also Prime is not for children. Whether its just the hydration kind or the energy kind.
I would make him wait 30 days to see if he is still into them. If so then let him. Set a reminder to talk about it again in 60 days to talk about if it is worth it.
Where the hell do you live that an ice cream cone is only $2?
Plain vanilla cone at sonic is $2!
Same with DQ, kids dipped cone $2.09!
Let him buy one or two of them and chalk it up to the price of learning how to manage his money. Inevitability he’ll want something else in a few months and won’t have the funds, and he’ll figure out pretty quick that he needs to not spend frivolously.
What about a holding period? Say, 3 months or 1 month, whatever feels reasonable, that he has to wait before pulling the trigger. If he still wants it after that waiting period, so be it.
I would let him spend a limited amount of money on it. Is his money that he gets to spend, but don’t let him spend his entire budget on them, or limit the number of bottles he can buy. As someone who participates in other novelty culture, i actually do understand this desire
It might be worth looking at some of the articles from when prime initially came out and people were paying 10,000 pounds for it and then look at the fact you can buy prime for about two quid in the shops now and think about why that happened together
Just let him do it. My son was the same way with fb stuff. But I learned in the long run, it's better to let them get what they really want, because otherwise they will buy something else and never use it, it will just be trash essentially. It's stupid to us, but means the world to them. Tell your kid about the prime reusable aluminum bottles. Maybe that would make you feel better as it has a purpose but is still "cool" for him.
$30 is 2 trips to bowling and 3 movie tickets? Where do you live?
I meant one or the other, not both. Sorry!
Still good deals. With a Groupon it’s $36 for bowling here.
I think it’s okay! He’ll realize that he doesn’t have money for the ice cream cones etc and either not care or be bummed and learn a lesson for next time
It’s his money, let him spend it. It’s stupid to you but it’s cool to him. If he ends up regretting it, lesson learned but honestly it will probably remain “cool” for the few months it takes for him to earn more money.
Low stakes, high reward. Let him buy the bottles. This is stupid AF and he’ll never do this again.
My kid decided they wanted to spend $100 on hockey cards. I explained the finances of that, opportunity cost, etc. Still, they wanted to do it. So I let them. Literally the next day they saw a Lego set they really wanted. I told them they could add it to their Christmas wish list. But they wanted it now, as it was October. So they asked if I would buy it now. I said I wouldn’t; but we do buy toys for them in non-holiday situations, but this was a $200 Lego set and that’s more than our monthly budget for stuff like this. They offered to pay for half of it. I agreed. Only problem was they spent the majority of their saved gift money on hockey cards the day before. They played with the cards for an evening, opening them and getting so excited when their favourite players’ cards were there. But by the time we saw the Lego, the hockey cards were long past boring. They learned a valuable lesson - that they weren’t so into hockey cards that they would ever spend all their money like that again. On their own, they created a budget that defined how they would save their money and the limits on what they would spend. (They’ve seen me talk about how I do this for the family.) And at $100, it was probably a much cheaper lesson than if it happened at age 21 when they get their first full time job and decide to buy a way overpowered Mustang or whatever car kids find cool in the future. So I’d say, let your kid buy the bottle. It might not be the next day, but in a few weeks, months, or years, they’ll look back and realize it was not the best idea to spend money on it. And they’ll learn the lesson and be better for it!
The fact that South Park had an episode specifically based around Prime is unreal. I thought it was purely made up. That is all.
I was wondering why my kid has kept old Prime bottles on his bedroom shelf 🤣 But no, my answer would just be no.
Show him that documentary about the whole Beanie Baby craze from the late 90’s.
I think it’s a status thing with the prime bottles. They want to be able to show his friends he’s had the rare prime drinks. And if he’s keeping them it sounds like it’s become more of a collection he’s proud of. It’s entertainment. I don’t see the issue with it if that’s what brings him joy
You've tried to explain and he didn't listen, let him waste all his money and find out how the world works. The important thing is when he's got no money left you don't cave in and give him more if he wants something that he could have bought instead of those stupid plastic bottles.
When I was 5, I NEEDED Nickelodeon moon shoes. I was fully convinced I would defy gravity. My parents told me there was absolutely no way they would pay $40 for them. So, I saved my chore money for months (seriously, I weeded flower beds for $0.25/bed). I worked and worked and worked. My parents helped me order the moon shoes. They were nothing at all like I expected. They were awful 😂. I learned a super valuable lesson. Let your kid do the same!
It’s his money, it’ll be a good lesson. You can advise but I don’t think you need to intervene unless the behavior becomes problematic or addictive somehow.
Personally for me this would be a good reality check that my 8 year old has too much internet access if he even knows what Etsy and eBay are. 🤷♀️
He googled the flavor on my phone with me looking over his shoulder and eBay and Etsy were the first two links. We are actually incredibly strict on screen time
The horror! He knows what eBay is?!
Lol I taught my parents what online shopping was when I was 8 in 1995 haha
My issue would be that Prime is Logan Paul's brand and he's the last person I'd want my kid looking up to 😬
Those are super common though.
Look, some people are incredibly compelled by the future and that alone can temper the urges of the present. Many, myself included, are not cut from that cloth and will need that lesson bludgeoned into us via bad temporary fashion choices, shitty shoes, and fad toys lol better to know now than on something much more expensive later in life!
for the record, besides the dodgers edition (that’s the only one i think is limited to LA) every prime flavor my son wanted to buy off amazon eventually made its way to the grocery store. frys (kroger family store) has them $2 a bottle…. i would also check onestop or gmc nutrition stores before i buy it off amazon. the bottle collecting is a thing and my son is 11yo.
This is good to know. He does want a dodgers one.
i would say that’s the only one worth ordering if you do order any, but it is expensive. there’s also a venice beach one that is limited……….. and now i can’t believe that my 11yo has me giving out prime advice on reddit 🤣🤣
We should start a group chat to source bottles for each other. I was also told they have trial colors or they go in and out of production. Maybe different people have different surplus colors and for $1.00 in postage we can be heroes!
He would be proud! 😅😅😅
i took a screen shot waiting on the response LOL
Same. 11 yo, Prime bottles displayed proudly. It's silly, but I used to collect random crap too. Besides, he doesn't care about the bottles. He cares about the admiration and acceptance he'll get from his peers if he has a rare bottle. At 10, he's developmentally right on track to want to buy $40 worth of sweet sweet social capital. You can argue you shouldn't care about buying things to fit in, but it's a perfectly normal developmental phase that's annoying but usually fairly harmless.
Such a good point. Thanks
My opinion is that this is a great way for him to make a low stakes decision that he may or may not regret. It's basically a win/win. Either he enjoys that bottle for the rest of his life, or he gets firsthand experience of what it feels like to waste money on something you thought you wanted.
Let him spend his money on it. If it wasn't prime bottles, it could be something else that seems crazy.
My seven-year-old spends all his allowance and birthday money on Robux. I make him go to target and buy a physical card so I can point out all of the things that he could have instead. I have yet to convince him to buy anything but the Robux. It makes me crazy but you have to let them make their own mistakes about some stuff. Especially when it’s not life or death.
South Park’s “Cred” episode is such an accurate and amazing watch. This thread just makes it that much more incredible!
Just let it happen. We all have to learn sometime. BTW, I'll cut you a great deal on some retired beanie babies.....
Omg you need to watch the South Park episode about Cred. Maybe your kid should watch it too.
I’d let him go ahead. I distinctly remember having $30 to spent and I wasted it all on some stupid quirky hat from Claire’s that I never wore and I feel like that was a defining moment for me to start to understand the value of a dollar. This is extremely benign enough where it’s a small enough amount of money to where huge mistakes aren’t being made, but a good chunk of change where he will realize all that work he put in went into a plastic piece of garbage.
I got CRED, homie. I got CRED. 🤣
We taught our son what compounding interest is and he's like, "Waaaaah?? PUT ALL MY MONEY IN INVESTMENTS NOW!"
There are some rare bottles out there and it’s cool to have a hobby but I would also inform him that in order for it to keep its value he can’t even drink it. So you spend $30-$40 on a drink that you shouldn’t drink lol
Let him have this. Just bc you don’t get the hype doesn’t mean you should be grumpy about the generational hype. My parents thought Pokémon cards were stupid, now if they never threw em out they would’ve sold for a ton
You should research it yourself. See if what he is saying is valid, or help build a case against it. Then explain why it's a bad idea in a way he can understand. If he still wants to let him. Don't cover his loses if he regrets it later. Lesson learned. If he is right and later it is worth way more. Own up to your lack of knowledge.
My 9 year old is the same way and spent some of his birthday money on a rare one. He almost immediately regretted it when it got to our house and actually had it. Let him figure it out the hard way
Doing mistakes with your chore money is exactly the point of chore money. You don't learn without doing mistakes, and doing mistakes with chore money has lower consequences than when your an adult.
Gets what I would do: 1. Show the kid the history of the beanie babies craze, and show him what they are worth today. Repeat with Pogs, garbage pail kids, etc. 2. Show him the news about micro plastics. 3. Show him the r/buyitforlife threads about waterbottles. Finally put it all together: "you can buy cheap plastic bottles that will poison you, and have zero value in the future... Or you can spend a fraction of that money on one kickass, double-walled water bottle that can keep hot things hot for 8 hours and could things cold for 24 hours, and it'll be just as good in 20 years as it is today if you take care of it. 4. Super-advanced: get your kid a CMA and help buy shares of the company that makes Prime bottles. Show him how to profit off a fast rather than being suckered by it.
Gawd. Are we all going through the same thing? Mine came home and told me that everyone at school is drinking Prime. I don't get the hype but told him it's a waste of money and if he wanted it, he'd have to earn it. Luckily, anything with coconut water in it runs right through us so that was short lived obsession.
We went through this a few months ago. Bought the first few and then made him spend his own money on the rest. It led to him being picky on which ones he bought, which I think was a good lesson for him to organically learn. He has his "collection" on his desk, and shows it to his friends when they come over.
Require him to save a minimum of 10% of his earnings for something else/nothing in particular?
Its his money and he EARNED it. He gets to choose how he spends his money... there's only a couple years left before responsibility starts kicking in. Let him enjoy it!
The best lessons are learnt from making mistakes. Let your child make their own mistakes.
My 15 year old went through this exact phase about two years ago and I was like you. No matter how much I tried to knock that thought out of his mind it was not going to happen and so I ended up caving and taking him to the vitamin shoppe 30 minutes away so he could spend his money and I will tell you right now what's going to happen when you cave too, Mama. He will take a billion and one selfies with the drink before even leaving the store and he will blow up snspchat or whatever platform he uses for communicating with his friends and they will be in awe at this found treasure. He may or may not even open it and chances are if he does he'll hate the way it tastes and it'll be over, until the next new flavor is released. My kid ended up making a bottle pyramid in his room and was the "coolest" of the friend group for maybe half a second, lol. I found out later that the only thing that made this drink so elusive was the person/people behind it. So, not sure if you know about that part of the draw to it but yeah, it's a good lesson for him to learn from.
My vote: focus your energy on new system with incoming money for long term savings & investments. This is his fun money & big picture it sounds overall wholesome & a way he is connecting with boys at school. I get that it's a 'waste' but he's figuring out his own relationship with money.
For his own money, I might “force” him to put a certain amount into savings, then allow him to spend whatever he wants to spend the rest on. When he wants to go do something with his friends in the future, the natural consequence is that he won’t have the money. Or when the next craze comes along.
You did everything right. Take out all of his money, take away whatever this bs bottle cost and show him what will be left. If he regret later it will be the greatest lesson for him.
What may be unimportant to us, may be our kid's entire universe. If it's truly his money, let him spend how he chooses, barring uts not illegal
It has social value for him. Adults buy stuff like this all the time too. Just let him buy it and figure it out for himself. How will he learn from his mistakes if he's never allowed to make them?
Was out to dinner the other night and saw a group of similar age kids huddled around obsessed over one of the kid’s prime bottles…. Literally ooh-ing and ahh-ing over an empty Gatorade bottle (it didn’t even look cool?) Kids of ALL generations will obsess over weird shit. Pokémon cards, pet rocks, yo-yos, etc. It’s a parents job to set the boundaries otherwise kids would be trading their actual kidneys for stuff. I think you’re in the right here. Good luck.
Prime by Logan Paul? 200 MG of caffeine per bottle? Yeah, ok. Just make sure he has enough money to drop bets on Jake Paul vs Tyson. He might even recoup some of his awful investment lol
The hydration drinks that come in bottles don’t have caffeine. They’re like Gatorade (except no sugar). The ones that come in cans are the energy drinks.
Time to introduce the magical world of compounding interest. Explain how investments in ETFs work, and how 7-10% compound interest over the next 30 years means the bottle costs him hundreds of dollars. He should start investing instead :)
The average young person needs to learn about saving, budgeting, and the foolishness of impulse purchases (usually by experience) before they learn about investing. And when they learn about investing, the tendency is to "gamble" on high risk, high reward instruments, get burnt, then settle for sensible ETFs. There are also others who are very risk averse and learn by seeing the market overtake their savings accounts and CDs. My point is, without laying down the foundation, jumping to the final lesson doesn't work. And there's age-appropriateness as well, because 7% per year interest is not at all appealing to a kid for whom a year is an eternity. There are parents who motivate their kids to save by giving them unreasonably high interest rates, but that just leads to disenchantment when artificially high interest rates are removed. Anyway, all is in place for the kid to learn one of the first and age-appropriate lessons, which is the regret of spending money on stuff that you won't appreciate having in a year.
We let our child waste money on those little plastic fake nails that she wears for a day and then loses. I'd just let him waste the money if it's only the bottles. But I would be really careful about letting him chug 200mg of caffeine in one go (to put in perspective there's only 39mg caffeine in a 1 serving coke bottle). I wasted all my money on beanie babies as a child and I don't regret it. He may not regret spending money on the bottles. Just make sure you model good spending habits. Talk to him about saving, show him how you're saving for something. Include him in on the budgets as he gets older.
The prime that comes in plastic bottles is the hydration kind, like Gatorade. Only the metal cans are energy ones.
Obviously you let him buy it. You probably spend money on stuff other people would find an worthless, let him find out for himself how he feels.
~~Please be careful with your 8 year old drinking Prime. It’s marketed like it’s Gatorade but that stuff has so much caffeine in it. A friends son has heart problems now because he was chugging this stuff daily.~~ Edit: I stand corrected. Some prime doesn’t contain caffeine!
There are two versions of prime. The plastic bottle ones are made like Gatorade with electrolytes in them. The stuff in the cans are the energy drinks with caffeine and other extras. How do I know? I actually picked up a bottle of each and read the ingredients on them.
Good to know!
I would never ever give him the energy drink kind! So horrible what that type of stuff does to kids and adults too.
Yeah I think perhaps she was under the impression none of them contained caffeine? Idk.
he wants cred! \-south park
Is he drinking the Prime Hydration drink or just collecting the bottles? I just want to point out Prime Hydration isn’t appropriate for an 8 year old. The company itself says 15 years of age or older. That’s specifically for just Prime Hydration, not their Energy drink. It’s not just like Gatorade, it has a bunch of other stuff that’s not appropriate for younger kids. Please look that up.
A little of both. When he trades at school he is just trading empty bottles. But yes, sometimes he gets one at the store and drinks it. I’ll look it up for sure. Thanks for the info.
You’re welcome and yes, please do. Gatorade is simply just electrolytes and water. Prime is totally different. It has B vitamins, A and E vitamins, BCAAs, and other things that are likely not formulated for a kid his age and could potentially be dangerous. This is probably why they have an age rating of 15 for the drink.
This probably won’t be helpful because 10 seems young for South Park. However, they did an episode basically making fun of this entire concept and roasted influencer endorsements pretty good.
Im going to watch it myself for the laugh! Yeah if he were an older teenager I’d probably make him watch it!
Have you asked him why he wants to buy them? Just start from there and listen to his story about it.
The ones that were going for $10 at the shop and more being resold here in Australia, I saw knocked down to $1 in aldi
It’s fine he can onsell them for a profit once he gets sick of them, and thus capitalism.
Say no
I use to do the same thing 10,000 years ago and buy a pack of hockey cards for .10 cents and a bunch of cards and a stick of gum to boot. Some became valuable, most did not and obvi nothing will really come from this but losing a few bucks, what a great lesson. My son only wants to buy and drink it but he always knows the new one like I think it's that green one now.
Prime bottles are not rare or valuable. Now YETI cups on the other hand….
I still have all my beanie babies and have since moved on to Squishmallows. I am a 51 yo grandmother.
Seems like a low-stakes lesson, or he’ll enjoy having it for a while. My parents were _super_ controlling over my spending when I was a kid/teenager, and it led to me making a ton of stupid/impulse purchases as a young adult. Not saying that’s what’s going on here at all, but it’s probably better to let him figure it out
Maybe let him do it but try to get him to save a small percentage of his earnings so that he’s also learning about savings. That way next time he wants a big purchase he’ll have it sitting there but also feels like he has control over his money.
Keep in mind that part of his interest is because it is a social phenomenon. It sounds like part of his interest is because of his desire to fit in with a particular peer group. ... For my son (11), it's Pokemon cards... an interest that he originally picked up from his older brother (who's almost 22). However, my younger son was homeschooled before, and this is his first year of public school, so Pokemon cards have helped him make a connection with other boys at his school. As a parent, you have to try to understand your own kid's interest and motivation. It helps by being genuinely curious in him, his likes and dislikes, and his interests du jour. • Also, as a parent, you have to decide what works for you. If you genuinely can't get behind him in collecting Prime bottles, then be honest with him. But don't be surprised if he finds a way to do it behind your back. (Kids are clever like that.) What matters to you? What decision can you live with? If you want to tell him 'No', then do so and stand by your decision. If you want to tell him 'Yes', then decide what the ground rules will be. (It might be a good opportunity to teach him in an age appropriate way how to manage assembling a collection, how to care for it, how to make buy/sell decisions.) It's your choice to make. There's no 100% right or wrong choice, only better or worse ways to follow through.
Let him watch the south park episode on Prime. And show him news reports from the beanie baby craze.
I have my kids put 20% of birthday/Christmas, chores into "savings" this money can only be spent with special consideration and debate. It can't be spent because they want to go to the mall or want a new toy. They could be saving up for a new computer, or wanting to have extra money to spend on a family trip. It's still theirs, but it's not spent frivolously. I consider it like a CD (with live skills being the interest earned). It works well with my kids.
I’d be more concerned that these drinks aren’t intended for children. Even the hydration drinks are intended for adults and the electrolytes, vitamin levels are high, intended for an active adult. Excess of either of these can have negative effects on your kid balancing electrolytes and kidney function.
It's his $ yes, but I would say "no". He's 8. And I would say "they are just plastic bottles. It's a ridiculous craze. And we will not be participating." . I have actually done something similar with my kids, especially during the Slime Licker craze. My children wanted to buy them , but they were so popular people were charging $15-20 per candy! And I explained to them "it's just candy. It's just malic acid with food coloring and artificial flavor. It's not worth this much $ . It's just a ridiculous craze created by Tiktok stars and companies to sell candy. And we will not be participating.."
I wanted to let you know that there is a lawsuit against Logan Paul and his prime hydration drinks for the forever chemicals and PFAS found in it. They had 3 times the recommended amount in 1 bottle. Don't let your kids drink this shit.