How Consistent are you being with your Kids & Money?

IS THIS SCENARIO FAMILIAR?

Having listened to a group of Mums recently discussing the subject of money with their children a message seemed to be coming across over & over again.
The same message is why your children will not grow up with any knowledge about money management and it is because as parents we tend to do the same tired old thing— we let them use OUR money to buy things instead of using their own. Now children will usually fall into one of two categories—they will either be hoarders or spenders. Some will have no money left 24 hours after pocket money day & others will not have spent a penny of their OWN money for weeks, months, sometimes even years.

Now whilst we are on the surface being kind hearted, two things usually follow:- the first is that we are guilty of not actually TEACHING anything by this behaviour and secondly we are very rarely absolutely consistent with this approach.

For example :- It’s your child’s disco at school, it only happens a couple of times a year, it costs £1 plus your child will need some money for drinks and food when they are there. It is just after pay day, you can relax for the next few weeks and you have some surplus income, so you say to your child,

“here’s the £1 to get in plus here’s another £ 2.50 to have some treats when you are there, maybe you can even treat your best friend.” Your child says WOW, he/she is more happy & off they go.

SAME SCENARIO but one big difference—it is 7 days AWAY from pay day when the next disco comes round. Now you have already not only been great about the entrance fee, but you gave them a little “extra” last time. Your child runs in from school—comes straight up to you smiling ( because it was such a good experience last time ) and says “ Can I have £ 3.50 to go to the disco tonight please?”

I am not a betting person, but I would put money on you not repeating what you did last time, the phrase” What do you think I am , made of money?” usually appears in there somewhere, or “How many more discos are there to go to?” may be your reaction , but you can begin to see where our inconsistent approaches to money with our children begin to emerge.

By using our principles, that are easily applied, this sort of occurrence should become a thing of the past.

Stop being too kind hearted when it comes to buying your children everything, especially if you insist ( or worse still; they insist ) that they do not spend their own money. Of course given the choice they will spend yours! Not only that it will become a life time habit—a computer game today £39.99—a car when they are older £ 2500—they WILL not see any difference, unless you start to apply these principles. Your children will appreciate knowing these skills forever.

Kind regards
Diane