Children Learn What They Live

When people first become parents, they don’t often think about a simple fact of life: children grow, and as they do, their need for independence grows with it. When once they were satisfied with a simple, “no, you don’t need that right now,” they begin to desire some sort of fiscal responsibility. What are parents to do when their children reach this milestone on the road to maturity?

By the time they are about ten years old, children’s desire for money to call their own surfaces. Some parents opt for the “allowance” option, a tried-and-true form of payment to children who then are able to spend the money they receive as they see fit. When my husband and I made the decision to start allowances to our preteen children, we turned to a financial advisor that we often listened to on a morning radio program. His advice was to give each child an amount of money that was half of his or her age. Relieved to get some sort of guidance, we commenced with a bi-weekly allowance, and our children were thrilled! What we, as a family, didn’t realize, however, was that it took some time to get used to a new method of dealing...dealing with our children’s material demands. At first, they would spend all of their money in a day and then look to us for financing movie trips with their friends and small toy desires that struck when we were in a store. And at first we gave in. We realized the error of our ways when the behavior of our children became more demanding, more spoiled.

We had a sit-down discussion with them and resolved to get better about making them stick to a budget of their own creation. When the money was gone, it was gone. Period. Sticking to this plan was not easy. They cajoled, whined, and carried on as if we were depriving them of life-giving essentials. We hung in there, and eventually they came to grudgingly accept their limits. And they began to budget for themselves.

Another dilemma that we faced with our growing children was the issue of “chores-for-allowance.” Some families do it, some don’t. Those who don’t stick by the belief that chores are a family responsibility and shouldn’t be something they are paid to accomplish. Some families barter chores for allowance, using the idea that work should be equated with monetary reward. We opted for an in-between. Some chores became a condition of full-allowance privilege, and some are done whether money is a factor or not.

We have continued with this “plan of action” as preteens became teenagers. The reward of the allowance becomes evident when I watch my children think before they purchase and shake their heads “no” when they don’t want to go broke for the sake of a movie. I don’t give them money if it’s not Allowance Day. Though they sometimes grumble, I can also see the gleam of appreciation in their eyes.

Word Count: 499
Plot: Teaching Children to value money
Beginning: The fact that children grow
Ending: The grudging appreciation of teenagers