NIGERIA BEWARE, OUR CHILDREN HAVE TAKEN OVER!

HAPPY CHILDRENS DAY

According to William Penn, “He who is taught to live upon little owes more to his father’s wisdom than he who has a great deal left him does to his father’s care”. Inculcating a good financial habit in a child is much more valuable than leaving a great amount of wealth for the child. A good attitude towards money and spending will help a child properly utilize the resources available to him. While an undisciplined attitude towards money will result in wasteful living. As a parent, the responsibility of teaching your children how to handle money, save for the rainy day, refrain from impulse buying, control and not be controlled by money, depends on the seeds you sow into their lives at an early stage. You must therefore find simple ways to pass across the knowledge of managing finances to your kids.

Here are some tips on how to train children on money matters:

·                     Instill in your children that happiness does not depend on what they want but on being contented with what they have, no matter how little.

·                     Never buy them things just because they are bored or upset. Teach them to wait for at least 24 hours before buying something they just saw and think they want. You will be surprised how often they forget about it.

·                     Inculcate a saving culture in them. Money at hand must not always be exhausted. There should always be a reserve. To this end, monetary gifts given or rewards from vacation jobs, etc, must not be exhausted on recharge cards, snacks, drinks or other niceties, clothing etc. This will make them frugal in money matters.

·                     Teach your children early about faithfulness to God in tithe and offering; take them through the Scriptures on the need to give God the first fruits of their income and not remnants (proverbs 3:9; Malachi 3:8, 10-12). Make them understand that the secret of prosperity is in being rich towards God. However, it is necessary to make a distinction between funds for specific purposes. For instance, tithes of school fees, transportation fares, accommodation fees etc, are not required.

·                     Teach your children early the habit of giving. Create a healthy habit in this regard. They must be taught that while it is good to give, they shouldn’t give out what is of necessity to them. Make it clear to them that they can only share part, not all of their pocket money, so as not to impoverish themselves while enriching others. Teach them to strike the balance in giving. This will help a great deal in future and prevent spates of emotional giving. It will also make them to know and experience firsthand the joy of meeting others’ needs and the blessings of giving.

·                     Teach your children early on how to invest and make profit from what they have at hand. With their ages in mind, teach them avenues of making legitimate money. They can engage in crafts such as photography, telephone repairs, sales of recharge cards.

·                     Encourage working teenager to contribute to home expenses. They will grow up to be responsible adults, as this will teach them how to share with their spouses later in life.

The biblical instruction to “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6) is directly relevant to money matters as well. Inculcate good financial habits into children and watch them attain financial independence and live prosperous, debt free lives.

Your role as parents in your child’s development as well as his overall well-being is very crucial. Right from the day he is born to the time he becomes of age and leaves home, you must be available to nourish, cherish, and nurture him. You must pay keen and specific attention to every aspect of his life at every stage of his development, so that he can grow into a responsible adult. The Bible counsels in Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it”.

Delay in instilling necessary training in your child at every stage of his life can lead o confusion, distortion and disruption in his development.

In Ecclesiastes 3:1, the Preacher tells us, “There is time for everything”. There is a time to teach, instruct, discipline, and guide your child, and there is a time to allow him go and become his own man. If the time you’re supposed to loosen the reins on him is the time you just start to instruct and discipline him, then you’re either late in training him, or you’ve neglected his training altogether. There’s not a more “convenient” or “appropriate time” to train your child. A child passes through various developmental stages, and as earlier mentioned, each stage requires keen and specific training. The child can’t wait for you to be ready. He develops rapidly from one stage to the other. You must keep pace with his development, and at each stage, ensure you give  him the needed training; otherwise, other influences will mould his life and character (Ecclesiastes 11:6).