Teaching our children the value of money

‘Jasper, can you please prepare the table for dinner?’ This is one of my oldest son’s house chores. Aside from helping me in the kitchen, my kids take out the trash and help me bring their folded clothes to their rooms upstairs. In return, they get a weekly allowance of 2.50 euros for the youngest and 3.50 for the oldest.

What’s the guide for giving a weekly allowance? A lot of websites will tell you around 1 dollar (or euro, I guess) for each year of your child’s age. Others start at 50 cents. Here in the Netherlands, I know of moms who start their kids at 25 cents! No matter how much money you give to your child, the important thing is the message that goes with it: teaching your child the value of money.

It’s so easy for us to spoil our kids. And most of the time, money is involved. Even in this day and age where online games demand them to purchase something to go through the next game level (yes, my boys are at that age) or when their friends in school show their new Air Up water bottle (which I think costs too much!), our boys are destined to always ask for what they want. And it’s time for them to learn that “money does not grow on trees”. 

Teaching our child to wait and save up for the next purchase will hopefully help them become more financially stable when they become adults. More importantly, our kids need to learn that to be able to have more money (for a bigger purchase), they need to work for it. Plus, this practice of delayed-gratification will also allow them to learn to have patience.

It’s definitely a learning process for us parents as well. We always want the best for our child and we always provide, (sometimes we even easily give in). But in the end both us parents and our children will benefit from the process and it will certainly help us raise our kids to become better adults.

Back to Home

Back to Mom & Parenting