Teaching Kids the Value of Money
My husband and I have a 12-year-old daughter who wanted to
go to
a winter retreat with her church youth group last year.
Price of
trip -- $45. I told her I'd talk to her dad about it.
"HOW much
is it?" he asked, "didn't she just go somewhere
with the youth
group?" "Yes," I replied, "and also to
two friends' birthday
parties. Another one is coming up this weekend." We
both agreed
that was a lot of money for us to spend for our daughter to
have
fun with her friends.
But the retreat was a church activity. So we should have
forked
out the money for her go, right? Well, maybe. In the past
year
or so our daughter had made a lot of new friends and had
been
asked to be involved in a lot of new social activities. Last
summer was the first year we could afford to let her go to
summer
camp for a week. It pleased me more than anything to tell
her
she could go.
The more we've let our daughter go do things with her
friends,
the more she takes those things for granted, and expects
more.
She then resents doing something so menial as her household
chores. So now we make sure her chores are done before she
goes
anywhere. "Room's not clean, laundry not started?
Better hurry
and do them before you go do something with your friends.
Don't
have time? Then I guess you're out of luck." But that
was only
the start. Whenever the attitude starts in she's given a
warning
and then privileges start being taken away, one by one.
You have to figure out what works for you. You may have to
teach
each child individually, because each is motivated
differently.
If your children cheerfully hand over their allowance every
time
they don't take out the garbage, you should take some other
privilege away.
Resist the urge to give your children too much allowance.
Don't
buy them things that they can save money for themselves,
like
designer clothes, CD's, magazines, make up, video games,
etc.
Even young children can be taught to save for small things.
Almost nothing makes me more sad than seeing children who
take
their allowances for granted and never have to work for it.
Parents aren't doing their children any favors by teaching
them
to expect everything to be handed to them. We sacrifice, and
they don't appreciate it. Why should they? They don't have
anything to lose.
So did our daughter get to go on her retreat? We decided she
could go if she paid $20 of the $45. She was not happy about
it.
She only gets $3 a week allowance, and she was saving her
money
for a new CD. She stewed about it for awhile, and then
forked
over what money she had. We worked out a payment schedule
for
her to come up with the rest of the money before the weekend
of
the retreat, and we let her do extra chores to earn a few
more
dollars. Are we guilty of child abuse? Our daughter thinks
so,
but her dad and I know better.
Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom who publishes
the
Creative Homemaking Recipe of the Week Club, a weekly
newsletter
that contains quick, easy dinner ideas and money-saving
household
hints. To subscribe send a blank e-mail message to
mailto:FreeRecipes-subscribe@egroups.com.
Visit Creative
Homemaking at http://www.creativehomemaking.com
and in the Home
and Garden section of Suite 101 -
http://www.suite101.com/welcome.cfm/creative_homemaking
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