We’ve explored our various attitudes about allowance and saving money here in the Parenting blog, but I thought it might be interesting to look at how our beliefs and attitudes about money affect our parenting—not only what we DO as parents, but what sort of attitudes and beliefs (inherited, learned, absorbed, etc.) are we also passing on to our own children?
I am an extraordinary thrifty person. I don’t really think I was raised to be thrifty, but have developed thrifty-ness as a reaction to the realties of adult life. I am sure that there is room for improvement in terms of my being able to embrace the potential for abundance, but being able to keep things simple and avoid the complications of too much debt has made it possible for me to be able to support three kids and a household as single parent. I imagine that some of that is good to pass on to my kids—but maybe I’m not providing a balanced picture for them as they move out into the “real world.”
Beliefs and attitudes about saving, spending, credit, tithing, and earning can all be part of what we pass on to our children—either purposefully through conversations and lessons or through absorbing and watching how we manage our own money issues. Even in families like my own family of origin where talking about money was a very big taboo, I absorbed values and beliefs about money.
I think the point of self-evaluation for us as parents is to think about whether we want to consciously pass on our attitudes and beliefs about money to our kids—or whether we want to work to make improvements, provide education or actually let go of some of our own beliefs that have NOT served us and try to refrain from passing those on. Our kids are going to take away something from us when it comes to money, it’s up to us to decide whether it’s going to be active or passive.
See Also: Allowance Strategies for Families and To Pay or Not To Pay–Allowances and Chores