“Chini”

I am sure you’d never heard of this term or word before.

You might even think that this might be the pretty name of an adorable lady I recently met. Hey, I am very much married to fancy about some name of some pretty woman.

Before you’d wonder farther, “chini” is the terminology that my kids refer to the twenty-five cent coin, that bronze colored quarter of a 1-Peso coin. Due to a sputtering of sari-sari stores and the occasion of flighty vendors just outside our premises, my kids would often request for some pennies from me so that they could hie off and buy candies and curls outside. The minute I get home from work, or from any point in the city, the kids would soon appear before me with their hands on the open palm position, demanding for the pennies, sometimes at the barrel of the gun. I had always intimated to my wife that the kids should not be spoiled with this kind of habit and should be trained to value every penny they could have. But they could be often so raucous with their demands that in the end, I always give in to their often-extreme persuasions. I could not do anything except give in. Maybe a penny here and a penny there wouldn’t as much imbibe them towards being spendthrift and squandering attitudes. I hope so greatly.

I had always wondered how they had formed this habit and become sometimes too wary that they could become excessive in their ways, especially when they grow up. My inquiry into this matter would always lead me to their Lola Dol and their late Lolo Hussin, who had always spoiled them with money whenever they come visiting or when the kids goes visiting to them on weekends.

When I was a kid, my Lolo Unih had been so lenient to me that I had become so used with money in my pocket at a very young age. Somehow, it had inculcated in me the bad habit of being a spendthrift, buying lots of toys and chocolates, here and there. When he had suddenly passed away, the money suddenly disappeared (at least the kind that I had been having before) and I had to contend with the huge adjustment that I had to make. It’s not sane I tell you. It’s one of the most difficult phases of my life. It felt like the world came falling on me and there was a general heaviness on my gait the moment my grandfather had died.

But thanks to the Lord that such occasion is already in the distant past. The money I have now may not be that much but it sure tends to me fairly well enough.

Now, my kids could sometimes ask too much money from me, way beyond their age. For example, whenever I give them pennies in the denomination of twenty-five cents coins, the so-called “chini”, they always spurn it and wanted the 1-Peso coin instead, even if the total of twenty-five cents coins would approximate or even surpass 1 peso.

I always tell them that money is not something to take lightly and they must learn to spend them wisely. I want to inculcate in them the value of money and wise use of resources as early as now, for I fully believe that good management of wealth and resources is one elemental key to success—-to their future success for that matter. Spending should be within the parameter of how much one earns. If one spends more than he or she earns, then there should be a very huge problem.

So I end up with a lot of “chinis” in my pocket since my kids doesn’t even want them. Often, whenever I am at the grocery store or at the pharmacy, and whenever the store cashier gives me loose change in the denomination of 25-cents, I often decide to tuck them into those donation boxes or jars that we often see in these sort of places. That way, my “chinis” would be of great use to some other member of our society.

Or maybe, I should have a jar myself at home and put the “chinis” into them whenever I have them. Maybe in time, there’d be so many of them that even my very demanding kids would want them.