“O Mom! Don’t be a snob, it is
just 2000 bucks. If you don’t want to give, I will ask Dad. But, please for
heaven’s sake, I don’t want another lecture” was my Elder Sister’s 16 year old daughter’s
reaction when her mother asked why she needs these 2000 rs. Embarrassed by her
daughter’s behavior, my sister told me in a sad voice, kids these days don’t understand
the value of money.
I remember the way our parents
brought us up, we used to get a fixed pocket money and for every penny extra,
my mother used to ask why do I need that. And, we had to give her full
details. Our parents taught us the value of savings and how difficult it is to
earn. The result is – that we have grown up as independent individuals who
respect money and understand its worth. Now, the question arises, where we went
wrong in passing on the same values to our kids, because they surely don’t have
them. If we dig deeper we can find those answers among st ourselves only.
1. We wish to give the best to our children.
This is my child; he should not go for second best. He will not go through the
hardships I went through to reach the place where I am today. This kind of blind love
is making our kids more adaptive to getting whatever they want. And, when the
time will come for them to fetch for themselves, they will have tough time as
they never learnt the hard way.
2. Not enrolling our Children into daily
household expense management. When we were kids, our Mother used to give us
money and send us to nearby Kiryana store to get her the stuff she needed for
her kitchen. This habit of hers taught us that nothing is free; we have to pay
something to get something. And, nowadays we have become so used to Mall
Culture or Online Shopping that we don’t send our kids out. They just need to
ask their parents if they need anything for school project, and they will get
the stuff without knowing the cost of it.
3. Dual Income. We all know it is
difficult to survive on a single income these days. So, mostly both the parents
are working. Now this thing has its disadvantages as well. Parents tend to
spend more on their Children as there is a surplus. As parents, sometimes we
fail to understand the difference between needs and wants of our kids.
4. Culture of Excess. Wherever we look
around we see parents agreeing to the demands of their little ones. So, we also
tend to get emotional and say if he can give his son Xbox, why can’t I? But
somewhere, we forget that we should set boundaries to this culture otherwise it
is going to consume our Children.
The reasons are
multiple leading to exploitation of young minds and our failure as good Parents.
If we want our coming generation to value money, we need to teach them the hard
way. We can start step by step. We can fix a monthly budget for them. We can
open their bank account, and let them operate it by themselves. We should also
take them to our work places once in a while, to make them understand that
money isn’t earned by going to one place daily between specified timings; Money
is earned by constant hard work and prudent savings.
Charu Hastir, CFPCM is founder of www.theriteplan.com. Rite plan is an online financial planning
portal created to achieve a single objective of providing easy and Do It
Yourself Financial Planning to netizens. Rite Plan is wholly owned by Tikkun
Olam Financial Planning Services LLP. Please visit: https://theriteplan.com/index.php?route=common/home/
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