Indonesia
5 Money Mistakes Parents Make with Kids
It’s not about how much it is, we just can’t go frenzy in shopping center. Kids will learn from us about how to spend money, Superparent. Here are five biggest mistakes we most likely do.
1. Our Kid Must Have What Other Kids Do.
This is certainly comes from our own childhood, isn’t it? If we grow up in always have more to buy than the money to do it, we surely don’t want our kids to live it too. Isn’t that the reason he work hard these days? But do we really want to teach them the spree? Surely not.
It may hard to be the only kid in the class who has no cell phone, so we buy him one. And it may be hard to have only cell phone when others have smart phone. And it may be hard to have last year phone, instead of the recent up to date type, the coolest one that will stun the others. Well, it’s a devil road, Superparent. Just stop there and think, “Why am i doing this? What message do i want to convey?”
There’s nothing wrong with purchasing good stuffs. But if the kids can always get them all so easy, not realizing how valuable they are, they will be accustomed to it and always want to have more and more. We don’t want to make the kids feeling cool just because they have cool toys, do we?
2. Keep Them Away from Payment Affairs
Parents have many reasons to cut the kids off any family talk about family money. “We don’t want to burden his childhood”, or “It’s not polite talking about prices”. In truth, any money issue can be a good lesson for them. So when we go out for dinner, show them the bill. And while we are at it, we can start explaining about tax and tips. For kids, this could be an interesting math session.
3. Use Credit Card to Buy Things That We Shouldn’t
This is the biggest financial threat on any family. The kids hear us saying “Oh…I run out of money. Switching to card now”. To make it worse, the kids see us pulling the card out of the wallet and able to buy something that we can’t afford to. What message do we tell them this way? “We can buy things without paying problems. This is by far is the worst message parents can tell the kids,” Neale Godfrey, Chairman Children’s Financial Network who is also a mother, explains. Superparents, make sure the kids understand that the bill will come by month end and we still have to pay it forward.
4. Buy Something for the Kids and Tell Them Not to Tell Daddy/Mommy
This will make the kids closing in when it comes to money. We surely don’t want to teach the kids to con, by involving him to conspire about money against dad. “Ok, here’s my card. Go buy you game but don’t tell Dad, ok? If he asks, just say it’s a gift from Grandpa last christmast. He probably don’t remember, anyway.” The solution is only one: don’t do it! If we start being secret with husband/wife about money, don’t be surprised if later our kids may be fooling us the same way. Well?
5. Too Easy to Give Money for the Kids
We’ve given the weekly pocket money. But look closely to their daily request, which they actually could buy with it. “Dad, we are having bazaar at school tomorrow.” “I’m going to mall with Jimmy, Mom, can you give me some money…?” Sounds familiar? A piece at the time, still not a wise thing to do. Try to stand your ground and not giving them any extra money. See how much we could save out of the expenses. We should control any transfer of money from our hand to theirs, Superparents. If they ask for more, ask specifically what is it for, before deciding whether or not you are going to give it away.
PHOTOS: THINKSTOCKS
