Wisebread (via Consumerist) has a great post in which a mom (Frugal Duchess) has to tell her preteen daughter that the sales girl at a popular “tween” store – who spent quite some time with her – was not her friend. Both posts – and comments – on Wisebread and Consumerist make for some great reading. Consumerist in particular makes the point that, if you don’t teach kids early to be “aware” consumers who can apply critical thinking to their purchases, it can come back to bite them later – something that totally rang true in *my* early life, to the tune of a $3000 credit card debt at 22.
Jason and I already had a discussion about this (totally unprompted by the article) and how we plan to start teaching AJ about money. Of course, now at 2 months (!) old, the most we can do is start him on a savings plan, but as he grows up, we’ve already discussed the best way to frame up both earning and spending money. Since it was Jason’s big idea, I’m going to see if he can do a guest post to discuss it and get some feedback.
In the meantime, how do those of you with older kids (i.e., those that can feed themselves) teach them to apply critical thinking to their purchases? Or do you?
