Parents love their children and want to provide them with the best. However, in some cases, many parents overdo it, handling their children with kid gloves and becoming afraid to discipline them for fear of scarring them psychologically.
While many kids are smart enough to overcome this, others become spoiled children, and can eventually grow up to be spoiled adults. While spoiled children are not that big a deal, when they grow up this can become a bigger problem, as they may feel entitled to things without doing anything to earn or deserve them. However, if you teach your child sound values while they are young, they may grow up and leave such behavior behind.
One thing you can teach your children so they can grow up to become functional adults is money management. If you can teach your child how to manage his or her money at an early age, this can become a skill, and more importantly an attitude, that they will take with them for the rest of their life.
Set Up an Allowance
Many parents agree that setting an allowance is a great way to start teaching kids about money management. By giving them a fixed weekly allowance, you can teach them about budgeting and managing their money to last until the next allowance period. Teach them the basics first, which is that they can only spend spend the money they have on hand.
Be Firm with Allowance Amounts and Schedules
One lesson they might learn a lot from from is the consequences of using up their allowance. While it’s tempting to give your child more money when they come crying to you, you must be firm. This will teach them that the decisions they make have consequences, and that next time they will have to think carefully when deciding how to spend their money.
Set a Good Example
Some parents go with the teaching technique of, “Do as I say, not as I do,” but you can’t always rely on this philosophy because, no matter what you do, your kids are watching your every move. That said, you should try to set a good example for your little ones. If you’re teaching them to budget and they see you splurge on a pair of shoes, they might think “If Mom/Dad is doing that, it must be OK.” Also, if your child asks for a very expensive toy or gadget, don’t just say, “We can’t afford that.” Rather, you can explain to them why you can’t buy that for them, saying something like, “We can’t buy everything we want because we have to choose which things are more important to spend our money on.”
Set Goals
If your child has a toy or treat they really want, teach them to save for the item instead of buying it outright. Setting goals are a great skill to have, not only for money management but for life in general, teaching them to become responsible for themselves.
You should include them in the bill-paying process: you can show them where the family money goes, how much things cost, and that electricity is not free. It’s not an eye-catching point, but it’s too important when it comes to proper money management to not make them aware of it.
Even though your child may act like a spoiled brat now, it’s not too late to turn things around. By teaching them to become responsible with money, you are giving them one of the greatest gifts and lessons a parent can impart to their child. It assists our little ones hone the cleverness of earning, saving, spending, and giving. Now they can practice responsible spending and saving before they get themselves in over their head.
Featured photo credit: money manage via farm1.staticflickr.com
