My late Mother used to say "If wishes were horses than beggars would ride." I DO agree with that one, but didnt understand it till I matured.

Here's my take on the example I gave: "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." It's supposed to be a story about the effects of greed. I think this teaches children not to take any chances. It teaches them to settle for no more than what they already have. And it discourages creative thinking. The story is one of a boy from a very poor family out looking for food. He does capture a bird to bring home for supper, but on the way home finds two more birds in a bush. Trying to capure those two as well, they get away, and he loses the bird in his hand, and so, goes home with nothing. I told this story to my children with a twist. The twist was that they were the boy. On the way home, upon discovering the two birds in the bush, I stopped the story and asked them, "what would you do?". This is an approximation of the conversation that ensued: "Try to get them too." " "But what if the one in your hand gets away?" "Then I'll have two, instead of just one." "What if you put the one you have in your pocket?" "Dad, does he have any pockets?" "Let's say he doesn't" "He could take off his shirt and wrap the bird up in it." "Are there any other bushes around?" "Yes." "He could take twigs from the other bushes and make a basket to put the birds in as he caught them." "Okay, what if he goes to all this trouble and all three birds get away, and there are no more birds?" "Don't be silly Dad, there are millions of birds. He already caught one. He could do it again." I think my kids are going to do alright in life. I've also been teaching them to be enterprising. My eight year old came home once and said he wanted to start saving his money untill he had a million dollars. I asked him how he was going to do that and how long he thought it would take. He said "every time you give me a quarter, I'm going to put it in my bank." We did a little math and when he saw how long it would take to save four million quarters said, "Hmm. I think I need to find a way to get more money coming in." He has since set up lemonade stands, tried to sell vegtables, sells his own toys at yard sales, and is constantly trying to think of ways to get income. Now, when anyone tells him, "A penny saved is a penny earned." he comes right back with, "No, a penny saved is just a penny, unless you save a bunch of them and then put them to work." I wish I had learned these lessons growing up.