Accounting – in the eyes of an 8 year old

A few weeks ago, my daughter asked me what exactly is it I do in work. My reply- I teach accounting. Now as, any of you with kids will know it never ends with a single question. So the next question: “What’s accounting?” And I think, damn. Ok, deep breath – how do I explain it. My reply: it’s about finding out how much money you make. Am I out of jail? Of course not. The next question was: how do you make money? Can you not just print more?. So, I ignore the second question as I don’t teach economics. My reply: you make money by selling something for more money that you bought it for. So the next question came back – can you always do that and make money? My reply: no. Next came a rhetorical question: well why do you need accounting then? If you don’t always make money, you don’t need accounting as you said accounting only tells you how much money you make.

Young minds – the clarity they have sometimes!