How Well Do Your Children Understand Money?

“No, we can’t afford that right now.”

“Money doesn’t grow on trees you know.”

“When I was your age, all I had was a stick and my imagination to play with.”

We have all either said or heard something similar to those statements above. We have all turned down requests from our children for something or another. Sometimes we turn them down just because we don’t want them to have that BB gun that we know they will “shoot their eye out” with. Other times, we just simply don’t want to spoil them. However, in these tough economic times, the reason is that often we can’t afford it.

It is very difficult for children to understand when we say we can’t afford something. Let me call your attention to something that you probably already know but haven’t thought about. Schools teach our children to add, subtract, multiply, and divide. They teach them to identify money and even make change. However, they fail to teach children how hard money is to make and how easy it runs out. Children don’t learn how to make a budget and stick to it in school. Teachers don’t teach them how quickly money can run out. Do you know why teachers neglect to do so? There are two reasons:

1. The government does not make them. The government gives teachers a list of standards that they have cover over the course of a year. Chances are that fiscal responsibility isn’t on that list in your child’s state. If anyone knows a state that does please email me and let me know. I would like to move with my kids to that state.
2. There is a big possibility that your child’s teacher isn’t fiscally responsible. To be fair, teaching isn’t the most lucrative profession in the world. If your child’s teacher is younger, then chances are he/she is still trying to pay off college loans. Your child’s teacher is trying to figure out how to do his/her own budget. How is he/she going to teach your child to do so?

“How can I help my child have a better understanding of money? I can’t afford to pay them an allowance!”

You can give your child an allowance. It doesn’t have to be real money. Sticker charts for younger kids are great. Give them some reward/goal to work for. For example, your child can have extra hour of video game/TV time once they earn twenty stickers. However, you need to broaden this once your child gets older.

Where the usual allowance system fails.

When most parents give their child an allowance they usually give the child money in exchange for chores. Then the child gets to keep all of that money to buy whatever they want once they save this. I wish the government let me do that, but that isn’t how life works is it? Older children need to come to an understanding that not all of the money you earn goes to purchase things that you want. Who wants to pay taxes, rent, utility bills, food etc.? Think about it. Most kids just spend their allowance on luxuries. They have no concept of spending money on necessities.

A better, more accurate allowance system.

First of all raise your child’s allowance a little bit. Remember that an allowance doesn’t have to be paid in real money. However, make your child pay a certain percentage of his/her allowance for things like renting their room and bed, clothes, and meals. Your child will hate this, but it will teach him/her character and an important life lesson.

Take it to the next step.

Every now and then, raise their expenses without raising their allowance. Explain to your child how prices go up on groceries and other needs your family has. If your child wants a raise in allowance right off the bat, say no. Explain to them that your pay doesn’t go up just because the price of gas went up this week. However, if your child asks for a raise several weeks down the road, give it to them. Many people don’t get raises in real life just because they are afraid to ask for them.

The Annoying Habits of Grandparents - Part One

Let me start off by saying that I love both sets of my kids’ grandparents very much. However, they both have certain tendencies that drive me bananas. My mother-in-law has one habit that is rubbing off on my two year old daughter, Chloe. It is her very annoying southern drawl. I have quite the southern accent myself but this lady butchers every word she says.

For instance, take the word “hat”. How can you manage to totally destroy a three letter word with only one syllable? Phonetically speaking, it only has three sounds - /h/ /a/ and /t/. So can anyone explain to me how in the world my mother-in-law can get two syllables out of those three simple sounds? Instead it comes out something like high-yat. Actually, more like high-yaaaaat. Make sure you hold out the last syllable for a full two or three seconds.

A while back, I purchased the Your Baby Can Read series by Dr. Titzer. My two-year old loves to watch the videos, but enjoys the flashcards the most. One of the words is “clap”. I was going through the cards with her the other day and I was really excited because she is beginning to recognize quite a few of the words. However, when we get to the word “clap” my little girl says — cla-yaaap. I am now noticing that my daughter is doing this a lot with words that have the short a sound.

To be fair, my side of the family is equally southern. One of my dad’s favorite expressions is “big ole” this and “big ole” that. Look at that “big ole dog”. That is a “big ole truck”. Chloe has picked up on the expression too. However, she has modified it. Her version is “big ole happy” this and “big ole happy” that. To make matters worse, I caught myself saying “big ole” today. Unfortunately, my wife caught me and won’t let alone.

Is anyone else having trouble with their local dialect? Also, what habits are your parents passing down to your children? Please post your stories in the comments section. I would love to here them.

Many of us think that our kids are completely safe online. The truth is that they probably are. Then again, you can probably drive to work tomorrow without your seat belt on and arrive safely. You probably won’t get into an accident. Your child probably won’t come across anything harmful online tomorrow either. However, your child is at more risk on the Internet without safety precautions than you are without your seat belt. Let’s begin with a little reality check. Here is what I want you to do:

Click on  http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/cac/registry.htm. This is the FBI’s National/State Sex Offender Registry. Now click on your state. When you get on your state’s website, type in your zip code. If you live in an urban area, you probably won’t be surprised. However, if you live in a rural area you may be shocked to learn that there are quite a few predators in your area. Now, Google some of the names and see how many of them are Internet predators. Again, you might be shocked. Now, before you form a mob  of neighbors and take your torches and pitchforks down the road, here are a few other things you should probably know. The following statistics come from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children:

1. One out five children were approached or sexually solicited online last year.

2. One out of thirty-one children had a predator ask them to meet them somewhere. (Remember how many predators were in your area! These are only the ones who have been caught!)

3. One out of four were exposed to pornographic material without seeking it out themselves.

4. One out of seventeen were threatened by someone online.

5. Only a fraction of the children in the statistics above were bothered and a smaller fraction were reported by the police.

This is all such a shame because the Internet is also a very wonderful place. The Internet is such a wonderful educational tool and can be a wholesome way to entertain your kids. Unfortunately, predators know this too. They don’t hang out at onlinepredator.com. They hang out on children’s sites.

So what can we do? Glad you asked.

• Keep your computer in a high traffic area like the living room. This may be harder if you have a wireless system and a laptop. Be sure to look over your child’s shoulder as much as possible. I know that teenagers hate this, but they are at the most risk.
• Buy some Internet Monitoring software. The best program that I have seen is PC Tattletale. This program will record and monitor everything your child does. If your child is on social sites like MySpace or FaceBook, the program will monitor anything they post, including pictures. It can also block any images that you don’t want your child to see. It can record everything your child types online so that you can read it later.
• Talk to your children often. Ask them what they do online. Keep the conversation going. You don’t have to be confrontational about it. Talk to them about the sites that you like. Get involved in social media yourself. Get on FaceBook, MySpace, Twitter, and so on. It will be harder to monitor your child if you are ignorant to how these sites work.