Summer Hack - Earn CPE while disciplining your children

It’s summertime, the kids are out of school, and you’re discovering your “new normal” for the next couple of months.  My wife, a teacher, is home for the summer, and so are our 6 and 4 year old boys.

Goodbye, quiet home office.  Hello, chaos.

With Father’s Day looming around the corner, it made me reflect on one of my finer parenting strategies that I wanted to share with my fellow accountants – particularly you accounting moms and dads out there.

“Can we watch a movie?”

What movie are your kids watching on repeat this summer?  For my kids, so far it has been “Sing” and “Sing 2”.  I consider myself lucky since I haven’t gotten tired of these movies yet and I think they’re pretty entertaining.  However, the downside is that my kids have been extremely demanding during car rides and have been wanting to listen to particular songs from both movies.

It could be worse! They haven’t been wanting to watch Super Mario Brothers over and over again.  I think I’m over “Peaches” song, so fortunately that was a one-and-done request right after they watched the movie.

“Can I listen to…”

I have a rule in my car that if my kids are misbehaving or don’t get ready as quickly as I’d like them to, then we don’t listen to songs in the car.  That means I get to listen to what I want to listen to, like sports radio or a book on Audible, which the kids HATE.  So the kids are very motivated to be “good listeners” in the morning so they don’t have to listen to dad’s ole boring stuff.

Recently, I’ve taken it up a notch…thanks to Earmark CPE:

  1. I get to punish my kids – their consequence is that they don’t get to listen to whatever songs from whatever movie they’re obsessed with that day.
  2. I get to listen to something I enjoy – yay for daddy!
  3. I get CPE while doing so – can I BE more efficient with my time??

My favorite podcast is Oh My Fraud, which gets me the fraud-based CPE I need for my CFE license as well.  This is a little risky since this podcast includes copious amounts of vulgar language, but it’s still safer to listen to than any of my nostalgic old school hip hop playlists.

Order Father’s Day cards Today!

Father’s Day is on June 18, so now is the perfect time to purchase an accounting-themed Father’s Day card for the accounting dad in your life (Card Option 1, Card Option 2)! 

Know a new accounting dad?  Honor them with our accounting-themed children’s book or LIFO FIFO baby onesie to make them smile every time they look at their little bundle of tax deductions.