Tryingtobecooldad\" post_id=\"2134927\" time=\"1717946509\" user_id=\"204901:
Hi! I hear a lot about having to teach kids about money nowadays.
I asked around in the friends circle, a lot of them give pocket money for food at school. But I am not sure about just blindly giving the kids money. I feel they should learn how money is earned.
What do you guys think? Do you make your kids earn the lunch money?
Not easy leh nowadays.
I'm assuming that you are referring to very young kids, like P1?
I didn't make my kids earn pocket money with chores etc - I wanted them to learn that helping out at home (tidying, cleaning, washing up etc) is a normal part of family life, and not to expect pay. I didn't want them to demand to be paid whenever I asked them to do something. If there was something special and beyond the normal, I might offer a treat as a reward, but I generally don't like the idea of payment within the family. Once they are old enough, they can get a job outside the home during vacations.
For young kids, tell them about how YOU earn money to feed them! Let them know that money doesn't magically appear (most young kids think that money grows out of plastic cards, mobile phones or from machines!).
The other important thing to explicitly teach kids is how to budget and compare prices. I used to \"think aloud\" when with my kids - comparing prices of food at a hawker centre, or items in a supermarket. We would set ourselves a budget for a family meal, and see how to keep within that. We showed them how buying drinks would add a lot more to the meal cost. This will help them when it comes to choosing and buying food in school canteens. For our kids, we would give them a budget for each day (based on canteen prices) and show them how they could spend it - buy a more expensive item + free water; buy a cheaper item + drink; spend less each day and save up for a ice cream once a week, etc.
I don't know if all schools use digital money (cards, watches) but I think it's a really bad idea for young kids. I think they should use physical cash until they get a sense of budgeting, getting change, saving etc. Role playing at home can help too.
Hope this helps.