In this article, we are going to talk about the Advantages and Disadvantages of giving Pocket money to children. During the childhood period, a child always has to depend on the parents for money. At the age of childhood, a child cannot earn money on their own and thus needs to depend on their parents. Although parents would be beside their children in every aspect of their life there might be some situations where you won’t be with your children and your children needs money. At that particular moment, pocket money comes into play and would be beneficial for your child if you give your children pocket money.
But besides having the benefit of pocket money, just like other things it has its other side too i.e. a bad effect on children. Therefore it’s a must to go through both sides of giving pocket money to children before a parent makes his/her final decision on whether they should give pocket money to their children or not.
There would be some important life lessons which your children will get once they get a specific amount of money for the duration instead of just asking money from the parents at every single aspect of life.
5 Advantages of giving Pocket money to children
Some of the advantages of giving pocket money to children are discussed below in detail:
1. All-round growth
Modern society or the prevailing society in which we remain relies heavily on money and the financial system. Therefore understanding money is an important aspect of one’s life. Understanding money is also important to become an all-rounded person. Therefore the sooner the person learns about it, the better it would be. Therefore, children must be provided with pocket money as this way they will be able to understand and know where to spend money and where to save money as they have to live with the fixed money for a fixed duration of time.
2. Help in case of any emergency
No doubt, a parent will never leave their children alone but still, there are some moments in their life where because of any important work you may have to leave them alone. This kind of case can be termed as an emergency and if pocket money is given to the children then you don’t have to worry about them. Besides this, there would be a situation when they are stuck at any place or are left behind and if they have the pocket money, they will return safely to their home.
3. Money management
As pocket money is fixed and is given for a certain period of time, therefore children will learn the value of money and will start developing money management skills. This will help them in managing their money in a good way and thus keeping it for a longer duration of time. Not only this, but also they will be spending the money given to them wisely and will avoid any kind of spending of money unnecessarily.
4. Learning value of money
In the beginning, it would happen with children that they would spend their pocket money in no time. And later on, they would have left with no money to spend. This will in reality help the children to understand the real value of money and how difficult it is to earn it and save it. With time, they will come to know that it’s better not to spend money all at once but instead should save it and should only spend once the right time has come.
5. Self-Dependency
There would be a thought in parent’s mind that by them a good amount of money at the same time would spoil the nature of their child as they will be obtaining money without any kind of hard work. But it is not the case. In starting it would happen and parents would also feel like, but if you follow a strict schedule then you would actually see developing a positive attitude in your child and this will also allow a certain level of independence in the children. This self-dependency would not be found in the children who don’t get pocket money.
5 Disadvantages of giving Pocket money to children
Some of the disadvantages of giving pocket money to children are discussed below in detail:
1. No care
As they will be getting lump sums of money, it would be a dream come true for them. Therefore, without thinking they would just start spending the money unnecessarily. And if they even spend it whole they would return to their parents asking them for more money. This is the time where thing worsens. If parents start giving them more money, the children instead of getting better would actually become worse and will develop an attitude of spending the money whenever they want and on anything on which they want to spend their money.
2. No supervision
Many parents out there will think that once they have given money to their children in the form of pocket money, their job is over. But in actual this is the time their actual job begins. Parents should take care of the things on which their children would be spending the pocket money they have been given. If the supervision is not done then they just might spend the money on wrong things and become addicted to them. This will in return have a bad effect on the child which parents would have not wanted ever in their life.
3. Being bullied
It is a rare case but still, it can’t be ignored. You never know a child’s behavior. If somehow the seniors of your children came to know about the pocket money of your children then your child might be bullied by the seniors or even by his classmates if the child does not possess a strong attitude and courageous behavior. Being bullied never left a good impact on any of the children out there. Thus when you were thinking of making your child self-dependent after giving him pocket money, the child would in fact be even more dependent on the parents for protecting him from his classmates or seniors.
4. Too young
Childhood is the age where it’s considered too young to get maturity level. Hardly 1 child is there who can get mature to know where the pocket money should be spent. Besides this, there would be cases that instead of learning the importance of money, it happens just opposite and children do not realize the worth and value of money. They start making hasty decisions and wrong decisions in their life which instead of giving a good response in the child’s life, will make his life more miserable.
5. Unnecessary expenses
When children got a lump sum of money they always wish to spend it. Sometimes it can happen, they are not able to spend it all and in the end, they still have enough pocket money left. This is one of the biggest disadvantages now. With so much money in hand, and less time to spend they tend to buy a thing which they will find fancy and attractive at first sight but after buying it, will not be fond of it. Besides this, just for the sake of spending money, they also might spend it on unnecessary and wasteful things.
