Courtesy of tonyhall

We just came back from our friends. We celebrated their daughter's birthday. It was very nice to spend week end evening with close friends and as you probably already guessed money was one of the subjects we talked about. We are young families majority of us are in our mid thirties and age of the children somewhat between 3 and 10, in my case 2.5 and 15. As we talked the thought that we bring behaviour model from our parents into our families became dominant. So I would like to share with you some of the stories we heard this evening.

Our friends David and Shannon have daughter Christine of 3.5 years old. Some day they were in the shopping mall and had this conversation.

Christine: “Mom, I want to buy you a present...”
Shannon: “That is very kind of you, but where will you take the money for the present?”
Christine: “We don’t need the money; we will swipe your card (at the cash registry).”

This situation is definitely demonstrates emulation of parents behaviour.

Another pair, Serge and Alicia have a son Andrew, he is 10 years old. Serge and Andrew were shopping for Andrew’s birthday present. Their choice was LEGO constructor. They found two alike contractors on the shelf with tag prices $64 and $100. Here is their dialog.

Serge:”So son, do you want to buy a constructor for $100 dollars?”
Andrew:”Dad, we can’t afford constructor for $100, otherwise we may lose our house.”

After Serge heard such mature response from his son of course they bought constructor for $64. Turned out Alicia is very frugal and is having continuous conversations with Andrew about possible consequences in a case of misuse of the money. It is unnatural answer for 10 years old child but the truth is that we are as parents role models for our children and they will learn from us how to manage or to mismanage money. So to be skilled in the subject of money it’s not any more solely our problem. We are responsible for the future of our children, for their well being, to be specific for their financial future. Don’t get me wrong, there are situations where we can do nothing but the foundation is in our hands. So next time when you are going to spend money on extra pair of shoes that you don’t really need think about your child and what example you are giving to him.

What conversations do you have with your child on the subject of money?