Would you tell a child that NRP does not pay for them?

FBaby

marisco wrote: »

No. They didn't sit me down just before my 18th thinking I could then cope with such knowledge. It was introduced to me gradually from quite a young age. I was an inquisitive child who asked loads, probably too many questions and as things came up they were handled in an age appropriate manner. The best way to enable a child is to subtly instil things over a long time period. Worked for me anyway and is what I am doing with my own children now.

Sorry I misunderstood your post. We seem to agree on this approach then. It's amazing to see how much kids take things in. Yesterday, my boy went to get a birthday cake. He was all happy when he came back to me showing me that he had chosen one 2/3rd off saying that the best by date was the following day, but it was still ok to eat, that he liked the cake but that it wasn't worth the full amount!

Dunroamin

Person_one wrote: »

But...how do you then expect them to be able to manage money and be completely independent financially a mere 6 years later?

I don't think it's necessary for a child of 12 to understand the complications of adult finances (maintenance, benefits etc) to learn and understand the concepts of budgeting, saving and borrowing.

Errata

Dunroamin wrote: »

I don't think it's necessary for a child of 12 to understand the complications of adult finances (maintenance, benefits etc) to learn and understand the concepts of budgeting, saving and borrowing.

Concepts are all very well, but real life examples a child can relate to gives them insight into how families live and how society works.

FBaby

Dunroamin wrote: »

I don't think it's necessary for a child of 12 to understand the complications of adult finances (maintenance, benefits etc) to learn and understand the concepts of budgeting, saving and borrowing.

As stated before, I think it very much depends on the child. Mine have always been full of questions since they've been able to talk. They take on any information I give them and ask for more. When my DD ask if we had a mortgage and I said yes, her next question was 'how much did the house cost and how long will you need to pay it for'. Both my children love to learn about anything so are always asking questions or looking for information from other sources. My boy last year (when he was 10) saw the advert for FAST on an ambulance. He knew that it was to do with having a stroke, but asked me what a stroke was. He said he knew it was something to do with blood in the brain, but wanted to know how you got it and how you knew. No need to say that telling them 'that's how it is don't ask more questions' doesn't go down well with them.

GobbledyGook

supersaver2 wrote: »

You're are not the only one, as somebody said earlier in this thread that they knew about their Grandparents incomes! I find that quite bizarre and if it is the case that the 12 year has been discussing maintenance with their friends what's to stop them discussing household incomes/Grandparents incomes etc with friends.

Children can learn about budgeting with out knowing household incomes, we had this strange concept of being given pocket money which had to last and getting part time jobs, we were certainly not told how much our parents earned.

That was me. I should have perhaps made it clear that my brother and I lived with our grandparents. So us knowing a rough idea of our grandparents incomes was the same as friends knowing anything about their parents incomes.

Plus when talking about incomes I didn't mean we knew/children should be told every tiny detail. We just knew that they had roughly Y amount (less than the man on the news said was the average wage) and the bills took up almost all of that so everything else (birthday, christmas, when the flat upstairs flooded and the insurance didn't cover the cost of the pain to redecorate us fully, the times we played football in our school shoes and ruined them) had to come out of the X amount left.

Dunroamin

Errata wrote: »

Concepts are all very well, but real life examples a child can relate to gives them insight into how families live and how society works.

Surely that's the role of pocket money - earning it, saving it, budgeting it etc.? You don't really need to know personal things about the family's income to learn those skills.

Dunroamin

FBaby wrote: »

As stated before, I think it very much depends on the child. Mine have always been full of questions since they've been able to talk. They take on any information I give them and ask for more. When my DD ask if we had a mortgage and I said yes, her next question was 'how much did the house cost and how long will you need to pay it for'. Both my children love to learn about anything so are always asking questions or looking for information from other sources. My boy last year (when he was 10) saw the advert for FAST on an ambulance. He knew that it was to do with having a stroke, but asked me what a stroke was. He said he knew it was something to do with blood in the brain, but wanted to know how you got it and how you knew. No need to say that telling them 'that's how it is don't ask more questions' doesn't go down well with them.

I think that the idea of privacy is also an important concept for children to understand as well though, particularly when others have been saying how this sort of information is bandied around the playground. (Although why children of 12 would want to talk about this sort of thing beats me.:o)

GobbledyGook

Dunroamin wrote: »

I think that the idea of privacy is also an important concept for children to understand as well though, particularly when others have been saying how this sort of information is bandied around the playground. (Although why children of 12 would want to talk about this sort of thing beats me.:o)

It's all got to be done in context of the individual child. I had more information about our family finances than most children, but I never discussed it. We discussed many things in our home that I never talked about outwith the house. Mostly because whilst I was curious about mortgages, interest rates and injunctions my friends weren't.

So although kids might be talking about clothing allowances and the likes in the same way we may have spoke about our pocket money I seriously doubt they are discussing the ins and outs of the family finances.

The only kids I've ever known talk like that openly without any sense of privacy are ones whose parents also talk without any privacy (you know the type - can't wait to tell everyone exactly how much they spent on their car/christmas presents etc).

FBaby

Agree with GG never had a issue with kids revealing personal information but like the rest it is about taking why it is important not to give personal details. Went through all this when they started going out on their own and DD got on Facebook.

Dunroamin

FBaby wrote: »

Agree with GG never had a issue with kids revealing personal information but like the rest it is about taking why it is important not to give personal details. Went through all this when they started going out on their own and DD got on Facebook.

With all due respect - how do you know what they tell their friends?