How to Deal with Kids and Money?

Parenting is a blessing and responsibility. But sometimes it can become frustrating too. And particularly when you have to deal with the unending wants of your kids.

Well, usually kids don’t understand that money doesn’t grow on trees. It has to be earned and managed.

Kids again and again come up with demands that require you to spend a lot of money. As a parent, you never want to disappoint your kids and end up fulfilling their wants and desires. But this puts pressure on your budget, and you have to face a hard time managing your finances.

So is this the right approach for you?

Are you not spoiling your kids by fulfilling their each and every demand?

Kids and Money bring up an entirely new challenge in your life as a parent. Ultimately, somewhere down the line you have to teach your kids the importance of money or rather the importance of saving money.

But how would you accomplish this?

How would you mentor your kids about money?

Before we move to discuss the solution, we would first dwell on the problem itself.

Kids and Money

So let us take an example to show you what problems you can face in relation to “kids and money”.

Peter and Serena are parent to a 12 year old daughter named Kelly.

Kelly gets a monthly pocket-money and her parents fulfills her each and every demand. But despite all this love and caring from her parents, she is an endless black-hole of demands. Not a single day passes without a new demand from Kelly. To top it all, she spends all of her pocket money within the first seven days of a month. She has expensive gadgets, toys, accessories, clothes and lots of other things.

This behaviour of Kelly has now disturbed her parents. They work hard to maintain their standard of living and find it difficult to fulfil the endless and irrational demands of their daughter.

They don’t know how to handle this peculiar situation, but are eager to mentor and help their child get out of this habit of excessive and over spending of money.

Peter and Serena have realized they need a solution.

Well, like Peter and Serena, there are thousands of parents facing more or less the same problem related to Kids and Money. They too require a solution so that their kids learn the importance of money.

How to Deal with Kids and Money?

First and foremost, your solution lies in saying “No”. Initially you can feel that you are being a little too strict with your kids or perhaps even cruel in saying “No” to their demands, but in reality this is an effective, efficient and quick solution. “No” is complete and thoroughly powerful when it comes to handle your kids’ demands. You have to step out and use the position of being a parent to mentor this excessive spending behavior of your kids.

Then your kids would realize that they cannot drive you where-ever they want. They would cry, and can be annoyed with you, but they soon would accept this fact. They would think twice in demanding a thing or two from you. A simple, but powerful “No” from you would make them more mature and responsible in their money-spending habit.

Another way is that you can motivate your kids to save money. Suppose they want to buy a gadget like an iPod. Then you should make a point not to buy it for them. Rather you should motivate your kids to save money for it from the monthly pocket-money. This way they would manage their spending and also learn to save.

Well, you can also reward your kids if they end up saving money at the end of each month. For an example, you can come up with a reward of $10 if they happen to save more than $10 in a month. This definitely encourages them to save and also help to curtail their irrational and endless demands.

Then you can also involve your kids in planning the monthly household budget. This way, they get to see and realize how you manage your expenses. They come to know that you have limited resources through which you have to handle all the household expenses. They also get to learn that it is important to save for the future and for any sort of emergency too.

Practicing the above techniques you can very well handle the problems you face in relation to “Kids and Money”. Having said that, there are kids who do not demand much from their parents and do not excessively spend money too. But they also need to be properly guided and mentored from their parents so that they can continue in the right track and become responsible citizens of the future. Ultimately all the kids need to understand that money doesn’t grow on trees. It has to be earned and managed.

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