Parental behaviour with the child and in front of her has a significant influence on how the child shapes up. This is particularly visible in case of her attitude towards money. Here is a gentle reminder – a few dos and don’ts to influence a healthy financial attitude in your child.
Dos
- Inculcate in yourself, the financial values that you wish to instil in your child.
- Show (don’t tell) what money principles you want her to adopt and practice, by practicing them yourselves in your day to day actions.
- Involve your child in decision making especially while buying gifts for her friends or grandparents and demonstrate how a wise purchase decision is made
- Be prepared with your plan of action to intelligently face pester power (it is bound to strike you some day, if it has not already) – being proactive is the only way to counter this enemy of parents and of children. Humour works very effectively. Watch the Vicks ad mentioned below.
- While dealing with demands from your child always balance it out – don’t always give in but don’t always sound negative.
- Do involve her in some basic household financial discussions
- If you have teenager consider talking about credit cards and their prudent use as, very soon she may have access to one – if she already doesn’t have one. (it’s as important a discussion point today as career/future education/ love or sex)
- From a relevant scene in TV program/advertisements bring about casually what you consider as good/bad money behaviour – children learn it better through a neutral example rather than their own.
Don’ts
- Never preach what you do not practice
- Never use the words ‘we cannot afford it’ with your child
- Don’t encourage instant gratification.
- Don’t buy everything that your child demands, even if you can afford it
- Do not get your child expensive gifts just because other parents do so
- Do not encourage material comparisons and competitions between siblings/friends – ‘he has this and I don’t’, ‘you will have a more expensive birthday/holiday’
- Don’t use material things to make up with your child
- Don’t value a gift that your child receives from friends based on the price tag
- Also don’t buy gifts for others just by looking at the price tag
- Don’t boast of how much you earn or how rich you are in front of your child
- Don’t ignore personal finance education for your child – it is an important life skill education today.
Looking for some ideas for defense against pester power? – Watch this piece (No commercial interest here, used only for demonstration purpose to show Humor in Parenting in action)
