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Children should earn pocket money to buy the things that are above and beyond the normal things that they need. There are the jobs or chores that every child should have to do just because they are part of the family. Jobs such as cleaning their room and just generally picking up the things that they leave around. Children are human beings and they love to receive praise. They take pride in pleasing us and are proud of what they have and can accomplish.

Our son was always given all the essentials and some of those extra special things thought that he needed. He was a very normal kid, and most like kids was not fond of doing his non pay family chores. I am sure that he would have passed on his chores, if he had been given a choice. Our son did all the extra jobs for money, that he could find. He liked money, and all the things that he could buy for himself. At twelve years old, he bought a TV for his room. It was a proud and happy day for him. He had learned the value of money and that having a TV in his room was not a right; but a privilege. He also knew that his homework came first.

If you feel bad about having your children earn money for the extra things; you can do what we did. We paid for his first car, and he paid us back by making payments. We let him set the amount of the payment and the frequency that he would give them to us. This way he learned to be responsible and accountable as he would have to be as an adult. We had opened a bank account for him and placed all the payments that he had made to us in this account. When he was ready to leave home; we gave him his bank book with all the money that he had paid us; plus the interest that his account had earned. Our son was very shocked and pleasantly surprised to receive all that money. At first he wondered why we bothered to have him pay the money back. Why didn't we just give him the car? This lesson accomplished exactly what it was meant to do; it taught him responsibility, gave him pride and gave him a little money to help him on his way. We were also very proud of our son and his accomplishments.

The main thing about our son earning his own money was for him to learn responsibility and the value of money. There is no better lesson to teach what the value of money is then to have to earn it for yourself. Instead of "give me", you hear "Thank you!" and you can see your children becoming responsible adults. They become people who appreciate the gifts that they receive and take nothing for granted!

When you give people everything they want: they expect it! You are creating a person of need and not a person of independence. People of need will always need help and cannot adequately survive in our world. We need to raise our children to be good people who have knowledge and values. Everything besides love, a little help once in a while, a good wish for a happy life is beyond what is good for children and is out of our control!

I am proud to say that our son has become a valuable part of this society. He is independent, strong willed, and responsible. We guided him and he has become his own man. We are supposed to point children in the right direction and guide them until they are able to take over their own lead. Our son has done that!

Learn more about this author, Karen Langst.
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