Whenever we go shopping with our kids we try to give them the opportunity to buy something. It is never a big dollar figure thing, but allowing them to make their own decisions serves multiple purposes:

The kids stay engaged during the day because they know they will get something
The kids learn how to work [...]

When I went to college, I set off with a Mickey Mouse comforter, three garbage bags full of clothes and bedding, a boxful of school supplies and a shoebox filled with my favorite CDs and cassettes. Computers were still optional, and cell phones still looked like giant bricks. Now people going off to college have [...]