I was at a bakery (which also is a cafe-cum-restaurant.)near my place the other day . This place sells fresh off-the-oven brown bread and for that alone, I ignore the ridiculous pricing. Am sure the rest of the stuff there is just as good (it sure smells good) but it seems over-priced.
Anyhow, this post isn’t about the bakery.
Right opposite to the bakery is a prestigious girl’s school. Needless to say, the bakery turned into the latest hot-spot for the kids 🙂 . While I was waiting at the counter for my turn, I saw the cafe tables occupied by girls, most of whom were not older than 15. One particular table caught my attention because the girls here were around 13 years of age, ALL of them had smartphones and they were ordering cappuccinos and death-by-chocolate as an everyday business.
That more than surprised me!
My point is, this wasn’t just a birthday celebration treat or just a “lets-splurge-today” kind of a scene. What I was seeing was a bunch of very young girls ordering expensive food like they do it everyday.
It shook me up a bit, I admit. Brought up in a lifestyle where we could have anything we wanted (at home) and where money given to us was expected to be saved and invested wisely, the blatant “throwing away” of cash seemed a little difficult to digest! The girls pulled out wallets filled with 500/- notes!
Who gives that kind of money to children?!!
It reminded me of the time when back in college, I had gone to visit a friend who was pretty well off. In the course of our conversation in her room , she walked to the wardrobe and pulled out a drawer. My jaw dropped at the sight of the drawer stuffed with bundles of cash! The fact that the drawer wasn’t even locked left me even more puzzled! But my friend, in all the time I knew her, never threw around her money. She never spent more than what was necessary and lived life just the way we did.
But here were the next generation of kids, obviously coming from well-to-do families where pockets are always filled with money 😐 . I don’t know what irked me the most! Was it because the children were spending their parent’s hard-earned money, not realizing the effort that goes behind earning that much or was it because someday, given the changing circumstances, I would see my children doing the same?!
I sure hope not 😐 !!
now a days i see even KG kids wearing diamond stud for every school.. may be we parents are spoiling kids with material love..
The problem is not in giving in….problem arises when the parents refuse to give in. Its the child who starts suffering from inferiority complex.
I’m really not sure how bad it will get when the twins come to that stage, but I doubt I’ll let them splurge without making them earn every penny that they do want to spend 😀
Very true momofrs, i get scared whether i will be able to teach my kids the value for money or i have just give in to their demands.
I’m planning to give the twins pocket money only for the extra tasks they do. Making beds or picking up their plates and cups will get them no extra income. But washing Mumma’s bike or polishing their father’s shoes will fetch them enough pocket money for 1 vada-pav/burger a week 😀
We weren’t allowed money at all.. as in our parents would say “Tell us what you want and we’ll get it for you” till we were way into our teens. No pocketmoney at all. Whew!! So many right things to teach the kids.. and so many ways they can pick up the wrong ones.
We got money once a year, during Eid.
That was our haul for the rest of the year 😀
Agree Too. Its hard to teach the young ones about value of money. They just don’t care about being demanding not even trying to know what we parents go through.
Exactly….so how exactly should we go about with teaching them about money?!
😐