Children today live in a world where there is a strong focus on wealth and material possessions, so if we don’t want them to grow to become spoilt and entitled, then it’s important that we try to teach them about the value of money from as early an age as possible. A really effective tip for doing this is to start by giving them a small weekly allowance – around the age of five is ideal.

Giving children a weekly allowance is a great way to encourage self-responsibility, even if it’s an insignificant amount. It also helps them to understand the cost of things, and introduces them to the concept of essential life skills such as budgeting and saving. Having their own money also means that when they ask you to buy them something that you don’t particularly want to buy them, you can simply say, “Of course you can have it, as long as you buy it with your own money.” Placing the responsibility of making the decision ‘at their feet’ encourages them to think for themselves.

You need to be ready for them to make ‘mistakes’ and buy things you wouldn’t want them to buy – for example things that might break easily. You need to make sure you don’t intervene too much because it is important for them to make these mistakes, so that they can learn from them and that they realise what is important or not to them. The only thing that we would advise is that they are not allowed to buy sweets with this allowance as otherwise it might be the only thing that they buy with it!

These are just a few examples of our Best of Parenting Tools. You can find more ideas and solutions to typical parenting challenges in our book ‘Kids Don’t Come With a Manual – The Essential Guide to a Happy Family Life‘.