The Bad Messages we Convey to our Children About Money

Children spend hours every day learning in classrooms. We pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes to pay teachers to teach our children the crucial knowledge that makes society function. Without these teachers our children would have a very difficult time trying to function in the world and we owe them a great deal. However, kids don’t look to their teachers to learn how to behave, how to act or about what to be in life; it is also true that our children learn most of their important life lessons from us. They watch their parents to learn the most important lessons that will greatly affect their futures.

If you want your children to succeed in life make sure that you lead a good and responsible life. Although you can teach your children important lessons using words, if your actions and your words do not line up with each other, your children will notice. They will see the hypocrisy and they will not learn the lessons they need to learn–not to mention that they will lose respect for you as a person and as a parent.

One of the most important things we can teach are children about is money. This might sound a little crass and materialistic but in this world money is very important. This is not to say that you need to force them to only think about money; the important thing is to instill good habits.
However, in order to instill good habits we need to be aware of the bad messages we send our children about money.

Parents Managing Money

Here are some of the worst ones that I have seen:

1. It is not important to save. Almost any wealthy person will tell you that they got where they are today because they carefully saved their money and did not spend it in a frivolous way. Many people spend their entire paychecks on frivolous purchases. This leads to poverty, but it also teaches the children those same spending habits.

2. Money is worth stressing over and fighting about. Parents do not realize that their children almost always experience many of the same emotions that they are feeling. If you are constantly stressed about money, or if you feel that money is worth arguing about, your children will feel the same way. This behavior will suggest to them that money is more important than it is. It might also make their lives miserable as they constantly worry about money. In essence you tell them that money is everything.

3. You don’t need to keep close track of your money. Many people feel that they can get by without watching their money closely; they often find themselves in the red and behind on their bills. Their credit ratings drop significantly and they struggle to get loans. Because they do not watch their money they do not save it. In essence they allow their money to get away from them–their money controls them, they don’t control their money.

If you have noticed these sorts of bad habits in your own life stop immediately. Realize that there is no way you can teach your children good money habits if you do not practice them yourself. If there is some hypocrisy in your dealings with money be sure to correct your behavior as soon as possible. Line up your beliefs with your practices and habits. After you have started sending positive messages with your actions you can start to teach your children about money through words.