Junk Behavior, Younger Siblings, and Bank Accounts

I learned two good things this week that I want to share.

The first one is about junk behavior. At "Women's Night Out" at my friend's house, we discussed the book she suggested reading called The Power of Positive Parenting, by Glenn I. Latham. Although I have not read the book, one of the things that was discussed was junk behavior, which is defined (as much as I can remember) as annoying, irritating behavior, such as whining or teasing that is age-appropriate and does not affect their long-term development. The goal for parents with junk behavior is to ignore it.

I think with the younger children in one's family, this is much easier to do, because you know what age-appropriate behavior is, and you have enough experience to know that it will pass. I generally do a good job of ignoring junk behavior, but my challenge is to train my older children to ignore the junk behavior of their younger siblings! If I start now, they will have a head-start on being first-time parents.

I have wondered in the past what effect having five younger siblings had on my training and preparation to be a parent. I think it was quite significant, although subliminal, meaning that I knew how to do things, even though I didn't know how I knew it - I just knew that was the way it was done. But no matter how big the family, someone is going to be at the end and not have younger siblings. Hopefully, they will have enough exposure by then to cousins, nieces and nephews, and friends (and the actual day to day care of them from time to time) that they have some exposure to taking care of young children while they are growing up. I need to think of that for Peter and Libby.

The second thing I learned is from the blog Get Rich Slowly (see the link on the sidebar). We have done away with using credit cards for any purchase except for gas. We use one CC, put all of our gas on it, and get 5% back on these purchases. Instead of just paying the balance off from our checking account at the end of the month, I have opened a sub account with ING Direct. I am going to transfer the money for the balance on the CC into this sub account frequently throughout the month, so I make sure I always have the money to pay the full balance.

I have considered in the past paying off the CC as soon as the purchase was made, but I didn't want to give up the money I could earn in interest if that money was still in my bank account. Now I can "pay" the CC to my sub account, and earn interest at the same time.

If you use a credit card(s), how do you make sure you have enough in your account for the CC bill at the end of the month?