I’m having second thoughts about the way that I’m raising my kids.
Let me provide some background on my kids first, just to give you a point of reference.
- Both kids get straight A’s in school, and do sports and other activities.
- Both kids have good money management skills, thanks to the fact that the both have an allowance.
- Both are respectful and well-mannered.
- People are always telling us how great our kids are.
So what’s my problems? Why am I writing this rant? Am I insane? maybe…
While I pat both my wife and I on our backs about the kids, I have to wonder if I can make it better, especially with respect to finances and entrepreneurship.
Initially, instead of teaching them to work for money, I wanted to teach them first to manage money, then eventually to make money work for them. This is in stark contrast to the way I was raised. I did a lot of chores, and got paid for certain chores. While my kids have to make their beds and occasionally pick up their room, they don’t really get paid for doing chores, per say. And this is my problem. How do they learn to earn money if they aren’t earning money?
Green with Envy, but Already Rich?
I’ll come home and see my kids either watching cartoons or other shows, or creating something (usually drawing or writing a short story), or playing minecraft… To me this is wasted time and energy (although I have to admit, I do like my daughter’s short stories and drawings). How do I encourage their business savvy without making it a chore? I’m starting to wonder if I should require them to work for their allowance like I had to do as kid… In hopes that such an allowance model would make them more money-wise.
My oldest is only 12, so perhaps I’m being to critical. After all, in comparison, I can’t hold a candle to either of them.
I’m the parent, so it’s really up to me to show them the other paths than just watching TV and doodling.
Time to refocus and think.
Bests,
Don
First congrats on having raised such great children. i do however agree that its a good change to focus them on earning money. How can you save and make money work for you if you don’t earn it first. I was having this kid of conversation with my youngest brother. We wanted to know how some people got so wealthy. I told him people learn to make money work for them. His question was how do they get the money to use to work for them. Well they earn it, borrow it, etc. I remember having to earn almost every dollar I got as a kid and I am thankful that i did. Kids for the most part seemed to be too entitled to everything these days.
Maybe your daughter could start a blog with her stories and drawings. Maybe your kids could do chores for some elderly person you know. You could probably come up with some small jobs they could do for people. I’ve even considered having my kids make cookies and sell them door to door for a quarter or something. Just so they have some business experience. I think that if you can get them into entrepreneurship, maybe by the time they get into high school they could have the income necessary to decide not to go to college, or work for someone else if they choose.
Why my give them the opportunity to make money work for them and at the same time teach them about loans and responsibility. So what I mean is if you challenged them to think about ways to make money not by working but as a business e.g buying and selling and let them think about what their friends spend money on and explain the challenges of start up capital you can potentially loan then that and teach them how to pay back. Eg there is a new yoyo craze in school and kids will pay $5 let your is see if they can source them in bulk cheaper and offer to loan them the outlay out part of it and set up a repayment plan. When I was a kid I set up a soda can business in school…
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I think the tv could be considered a waste of time, but doodling and story writing is necessary for the creative parts of their brains. 🙂
I didn’t need much encouragement to earn money – maybe just suggest a couple of things and see what happens. I made bracelets and tried selling them by setting up a table in my front yard. I also had a semi-successful lemonade stand. Oh, and I volunteered through the VolunTeen program every summer of middle school, which got me out of the house, helping others, and learning how to run a library and a nursing home. Good luck!
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I agree with Crystal, I would not consider doodling as a waste of time and I would encourage more if they really want to. After all, maybe they love doing it. With watching TV, that would be a waste of time. Doing household chores for money can be a way. Those chores that they don’t usually do. Maybe they are crafty too and you start selling them like Crystal suggested.