Family Finances – In the Light of Parenting
Parenting is certainly no easy feat. Throughout the journey of raising your children, you will hear extraordinary questions, from extremely silly to surprisingly technical, to which you may not have answers. Or perhaps you will feel reluctant to answer them. No definite playbook or instruction manual can teach you how to handle challenging situations for children. Even the parenting manuals written by the world’s most intelligent people can never guarantee 100% positive results. Two of the most robust conversations that give parents cold sweats are telling your kids about family finances and telling your kids about the birds and the bees.
Undoubtedly, both discussions have repercussions as kids don’t wholly have the brainpower to understand them. Being a parent, you must learn wise answers to inevitable questions to tackle difficult situations. It’s a tough job, no doubt. However, as parents, we must establish ourselves as steady and honest mentors in our children’s lives. Plus, building a reliable and effective communication platform with a conclusive dialogue is critically important. Your kids deserve to know the truth, but sometimes, the fact needs to be watered down for their minds to wrap around it. As a parent myself, I know how hard this can be.
Managing the Resources at Disposal
Not every family is privileged enough to have excessive finances, meaning they have to stay within a budget that they have defined each month. Along with money constraints comes natural worry and concern. And that worry mainly revolves around managing your family and kids. Moreover, young children aren’t always capable of understanding the clear picture of family finances. Those who do understand are either older, incredibly smart, or have a brilliant sense of evaluating things independently. However, it’s important to let kids be kids. While it is okay to teach them that money does not grow on trees, they shouldn’t take on the heavy burden of worrying about money each month.
Changing Perspective
Their social environment and peers strongly influence kids. These influences often lead them to ask dicey questions that they may feel uncomfortable to answer at times. For example, ‘Dad, why do we have an old car, whereas my friend John’s Dad has a Mercedes?’, ‘Mom, why do we live in an old house?’, etc. Such questions are hard to answer as your kids have not experienced the realities of life. Perhaps they are too young to understand financial matters or money-related issues. It’s essential always to keep the lines of communication open between you and your children. You never want them to be afraid to ask you questions, even the tough ones. When these arise, change their perspective. Instead of comparing the differences between them and their friends’ families, please encourage them to find the similarities or think about what they’re grateful for in your family. From an early age, children can learn that things are just things and are not an accurate representation of what family means.
Family Finances – What and How They Should Be Told?
Most kids below the age of 5 are understandably clueless about money. A change in approach, attitude, and belief has encouraged parents to let their kids know about money matters in a family. However, different parents and child experts have different perspectives regarding this matter. Some argue that children should never be told how much they earn, which parent makes more, who owes money, how much they spend on occasional activities, etc. Some parents also believe that children should never know about family finances or anything else regarding family earnings and spending. Ultimately, of course, how you handle the money talk is up to you.
There are times when families may find themselves stuck amid financial crises, which may disrupt their regular monthly budget. It is better to share hardships with your kids in certain situations to understand why things may look a little different occasionally.
The Younger Ones
Younger children between the ages of 2-4 don’t have the brainpower to understand things well. To them, money talks may sound like Chinese. Therefore, attempting to share any financial information with them would yield no significant impact, no matter how hard you try. Child psychologists from around the globe recommend not sharing family finances or anything relating to money with children of such a young age because it is unhealthy for their brains.
The Older Ones
When kids get older, they understand things more thoroughly. This understanding means that you can breathe a sigh of relief and share money-related issues with your family, especially the older kids. Older kids have the brain capacity to evaluate and understand things, so they will better understand whether they can afford a particular item. As a parent, you need to teach your kids how to use scarce resources optimally to know the significance of money and savings. Sharing may be called caring, but when it comes to family finances, it should be shared with kids when the age is right—not before that!
Conclusion
Parents often keep Family finances private because they don’t want their children to feel specific money-related pressures from an early age. However, as soon as kids grow older, they must be told about finances to understand the value and worth of hard-earned money.
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