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Money Moral Dilemma: Should our four-year-old child pay for her own extracurricular activities?

MSE_Kelvin
MSE_Kelvin Posts: 376 MSE Staff
Seventh Anniversary 10 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
edited 14 January pm31 5:05PM in MoneySaving mums
This week's MoneySaver who wants advice asks...

Since she was born, our four-year-old has been given money by friends and family on birthdays etc. She now has a few grand saved up in a bank account we opened for her. Recently, we've signed her up to some extracurricular activities she wants to try - gymnastics, swimming, drama and Scouts. The cost mounts up, so would it be fair to charge them to her account, rather than our own?

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Comments

  • FlorayG
    FlorayG Posts: 1,619 Forumite
    Sixth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    At four years old she has no idea what money is for so it's a meaningless question. It's effectively your money until she is old enough to understand

  • dinosaur66
    dinosaur66 Posts: 239 Forumite
    100 Posts
    as an uncle who has given a lot to my neices and nephews i would be !!!!!! off with my brothers and sisters and stop giving until my neices and nephews were older and give them there money direct .

    first time i can remember having money was my mum giving us 5p each and  going to saturday morning cinema paying my 3p entry which left me 2p to budget for the rest of the week / being 6 i went to the sweetshop next to the cinema and bought 1/4 sweets so it lasted a few mins.

    also from memory and showing how times have changed i do not remember a single adult being present in a que that must have been 200 kids long every saturday.
  • saajan_12
    saajan_12 Posts: 4,489 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Perhaps ask the gifters if they'd be happy to give the gift of gym class (or whatever) instead? As giving money to such a young child is sort of meaningless, given they can't really understand what it is yet. 

    Also maybe in future the family members can be encouraged to give toys / pay for a class etc - things that the child would actually use or interact with in some way. Giving money at this age is really just parking cash to give the child later.. if that's what they want then why don't they just keep the money and give a lump sum later. 
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