Value of money for a 6 years old?
yuktimaan posted on Wed, 01/13/2010 - 16:02
My 6 years old daughter is a pampered child. And she has new demands everyday. Infact I have a feeling that she is still not able to understand whats really a need for her. Its just her want that dominates and we as parents will in anyway take care of her needs.
I am not able to get a clue how much she can be aware about money at this age. And in what ways I can teach her that money is something we have to work hard to earn and it just does not come out of anywhere.
you need to do something to demonstrate the expenses.
here is how i would do it.
create an expense chart. paste it on wall. put some arbitrary number at the top as earning. under that put some key items to highlight the work that you do to make that money. like working 12 hrs a day, etc.,
start adding all exppense items under that. every little thing. from buying a matchbox to buying home furniture. write the price of each item against it.
at the end of week/month sit together with everyone in your family including your daughter and go through the finances.
have three agenda-
1) how much effort was put in to earn that money
2) what all expenses were made
3) what are you left with
4) what are future needs- her education, big tickets items at home like fridge, buying a house, emergency fund to take care of medical needs, post retirement expenses, etc.
4) is the saving enough to take care of some of the future needs. what is the gap.
6) what expense could have avoided- take everyone's opinion including your daughter. in fact let her come out with a plan on how to meet the gap.
do this exercise for 6 months or so. in my opinion this will work.
good luck.
first of all i would like to say thank you to shillore for very good response.
yuktiman,
just don't give her the money.. plain and simple. you need to be tough.
give her one rupees coin everyday and ask her to put in a box. ask her at te end of every month. and show her how difficult it is to accumulate Rs. 30/-. tell her that she should think about it everytime she thinks of spending.
thank you everyone,
these are very practical suggestions. i will try each of them one by one.
please keep them coming. i really need your support. i am very very disturbed. i just feel helpless.
thank you again.
I am sure by this age a child should be able to differentiate between want and need. So if your child wants something like chocolate or some special pencil etc. You can let her know the value by asking her to collect money on her own from the pocket money and buy it for herself. This will make her realise the imp of money.
I am sure by this age a child should be able to differentiate between want and need. So if your child wants something like chocolate or some special pencil etc. You can let her know the value by asking her to collect money on her own from the pocket money and buy it for herself. This will make her realise the imp of money.
Do not give your daughter anything that she demand and make her help you out with some work and give her some symbolic money and tell her how hard you and her father has to work to get the money. If she really wants something which she likes she should work and collect the required money.