Your Job

Ok lets get ready for the future. First of all lets stop thinking that someone else is going to fix our problems. Number one is your kids. Your kids are being told by society the wrong things all the time. On TV, on the internet, by the kids at school and by adults all the time. It's your job to make sure that they understand this attack and why it is being waged on them. The truth of the matter is the only person that benefits from your child being informed is your child and you. IF you don't stand up for them then who will? Calvin Klein, Victoria's Secret, the Internet, Apple Inc., Teacher, A Sports Coach, who is teaching your kids why they need to be smarter when it comes to life. I'll tell you, If your not then there is probable a 99.9% chance that they have no idea that they are being scammed on a colossal scale.

 

One of the biggest weaknesses we have as American's is believing the hype and if your feeding it to your child your more to blame then the multimillion dollar companies trying to pry every cent out of your child's hands. If you have the money and you want to spend a 1000 dollars on a purse that's your business but don't buy your daughter the same purse or even a 100 dollar purse because you are setting them up for failure in life and all their friends too. Your right, your kid will be the envy of everyone at school but at what cost. When you don't give a realistic view of the world then you are failing as a parent.

 

You should be talking to your child about saving money and the evils of credit cards and banks and outrageous prices on what things cost. You should at least a couple of times in the 18 years that you have them spend some time helping out the less fortunate, the earlier the better. I don't think it's going to have much of an impact on your 18 year old. As a matter of fact I don't think you would be able to get them off the phone long enough to even know what was going on. A 11 year old though can be told to leave their phone at home. If you cant get your 11 year old to put down their phone you have bigger problems and need to get control of your household. If you can't put down your phone you can't correct them.

 

Back to our problem, this shows them reality. Some of the people you encounter in need have college degrees and had good paying jobs. Don't fool yourself. If you don't think this is reality I can tell you it's a lot more realistic then buying your child the best of everything. You can buy your child gifts, I know I did, but I never bought her the most expensive of anything and I let her know that when she was out on her own that things were going to be tuff. She's still learning but she actually knows what I was telling her rather then ruining up a bunch of credit cards trying to buy the things she is use too.

 

So unless you plan on supporting your kids habbits for the rest of their lives your need to stop. If you are going to support your kids for the rest of your life and then your going to leave them a couple of million when you die then buy all means do what you think is best. Just know that kids that have everything get bored and boredom leads to things that I don't have enough time left in this year to cover. Your child's financial education  is your responsibility, even if you don't have a clue your self it's your job to make your child's life is not like yours but better.

 

Don't let society brainwash your child. Adults tell kids what makes life covenant for them. A coach can be a good example but his main purpose is to teach your kid to play a game not teach your child how to survive. A teachers main job is to teach your kid whatever subject is on the curriculum. Besides did you know that Teachers and Coaches lie to kids all the time. Ya, if you don't know this your not paying attention. Why wouldn't they. Do you think that other people put your kids best interest above their agenda. Heck half of my daughters coaches and teacher didn't even have kids. That doesn't make them crappy teachers or coaches it just makes them too inexperienced to be giving your child advice, besides that's not their job.

 

Now I know that none of us know everything that is going on in our child's life but if you teach your kids the real ways of the world you don't have to. Make sure that your kid knows that they don't have to believe adults. They just have to be respectful to those above them.