My son is 11. Last week he asked me why his friend's family moved away. The answer was rent went up 40% in two years and they couldn't make it work anymore. Try explaining that to a kid who just wants to know why his buddy isn't at school anymore.

I didn't have a good answer. Not really. I mumbled something about costs going up, about how sometimes families have to make hard choices. He nodded like he understood, but I could tell he was just filing it away in that place where kids store things that don't make sense yet.

That night I sat him down and opened a Lightning wallet on my phone. I sent him 100 sats. Took about two seconds. I said, "That's yours now. Nobody can take it. No bank, no landlord, no government. It's sitting on a network that doesn't care who you are or where you live."

He asked how much it was worth. I said about seven cents. He looked disappointed. Then I pulled up a chart showing what $1 of bitcoin bought ten years ago versus today. He did the math in his head and his eyes got wide. "So if I just keep it..."

Yeah. If you just keep it.

We've been in this apartment in Brooklyn for years. Every year the rent goes up. Every year the grocery bill goes up. Every year the dollar in my kids' piggy banks buys less than it did the year before. I watch my neighbors work two jobs and fall behind anyway. Not because they're lazy or bad with money, but because the money itself is broken.

I didn't grow up understanding this. My parents saved in a bank account and it worked because inflation was 3% and wages kept pace. That world is gone. My kids are growing up in a world where a savings account loses purchasing power every single day. Where their friend disappears from school because housing is a speculative asset instead of a place to live.

So I'm teaching them something different. Not "buy bitcoin and get rich." I hate that narrative. I'm teaching them that money should be something you can hold without it melting in your hands. That saving should be rewarded, not punished. That 21 million means nobody gets to print more when it's politically convenient.

My son checks his wallet every morning now. He's got about 1,200 sats. He earned some by helping me with a project, I sent him some for his grades, his sister sent him 50 because she felt like it. He's learning that money can move between people without asking permission. That you can earn it, save it, and send it to someone you care about in two seconds.

He still doesn't fully understand why his friend moved. But he's starting to understand that the system his friend's family got crushed by isn't the only option. There's another way. It's small right now. It fits in a phone. But it works.

The other day he asked me, "Dad, when I'm your age, will bitcoin be normal?"

I told him I don't know. But I told him that he'll understand money better than I did at his age, better than my parents did, and that understanding is worth more than anything in his wallet.

He went back to his homework. I sat there for a while.

You spend a lot of time as a parent wondering if you're doing it right. Most of the time you have no idea. But teaching your kid that saving isn't a losing game? That the money they earn actually belongs to them? That felt right.

If you have kids, set them up a wallet. Send them some sats. Don't make it about price. Make it about the idea that their work, their time, their effort can be stored in something that doesn't decay. They'll get it faster than you think.