Why my 4 year old wants to swap his traditional piggy bank for a bank account

It's true. I think this is a prime example of what "growing up digital" is all about. So how did my son asking for a bank account come about?

the other day, I noticed that the little brat guy purchased another digital book which was downloaded to his own personal Kindle Fire. This was evident by a lovely email in my inbox telling me, "thank you for your purchase on Amazon." Um...what purchase on Amazon? #scroll...scroll# ...Jacob!" As a proud dad, I could only laugh.  After all, it was a book purchase -the boy loves reading books every chance he gets.

So, to make a long story short, I told Jacob that he just needs to ask me if he wants to download a book before doing so.  He's gotta follow process to, after all. "And you owe me $2.99," I claimed, smiling like Ebenezer Scrooge.  

But then, the response I got was one that took me by surprise. "But dad, I need my own money so I can get my own books by myself.  Do I have to ask you all the time?" This made sense. But right as I was about to respond to remind him he has his own allowance, I thought to myself, "What good is physical money to a kid whose primary expense at 4 years of age is on digital goods?" Then it hit me, the kid needs his own checking account. He has a savings accounts, but that's for the future. He needs something to take care of digital purchases such as the ones he makes (constantly) on his Kindle.

So long as I've got overdraft protect on that thing, I'm good. For now...I need to figure this out before the little man hits me with something else, like Skype credits, a recurring membership to Nick Jr. Boost, and possibly tying his Zynga PetHouse game to his account as well -apparently, he's all out of plant seeds.