Debts are enemies to a person's peace of mind and should be treated as what they are, "enemies". There is no use ignoring paying off debts hoping that they would just go away. It is also not a good idea to go into ventures that make you a debtor too.
True, there are situations that crop up unexpectedly that could push a person to make a decision that would plunge him/her into debts but, most often than not, going into debts is as a result of poor planning, impatience and discontentment. This might not be a welcome insinuation to most but look at it this way. If from the point you can begin to earn a little, no matter how little, you put a savings plan in place (I am talking from childhood and especially as a young teenager. Not forgetting that at this point in your life, you do not as yet have so much that you need to spend money on if you are acting wisely of course!), you very likely would not need to look elsewhere for money as is usually the case for many even for the smallest of ventures.
The challenge stems from the fact that there has never really been a savings culture instilled in many of us from childhood and as such, many of us have not really understood money management. Some of us point accusatory fingers at parents but, hey, who teaches what they do not even know about eh?
I must say that there are a few rare families who figured this out very early and began introducing their children to the idea of not spending all they get but to keep some aside. Parents or guardians of such families usually introduced piggy banks of sorts. I remember seeing traders to date displaying as part of their wares, crude piggy banks constructed with wood nailed into a cube shape with a slot on top of the cube shaped box. Some families even used empty tins of liquid milk. They would cut out a slot on top of the completely sealed tin and then wash out any remnants of milk thoroughly before keeping the tin someplace to dry out properly after which they hand over the makeshift piggy to their children or wards for use as a piggy safe. Sadly though, the percentage of families who were doing this and who are presently doing this is still quite low when compared to families where this is not even a discussion topic.
Parents tend to have the mindset that it is their responsibility to cater for their young (which by the way is not wrong) and so must need provide their children's every need, but they must understand that they do not have to parent children into "money management ignorance" or "money management illiteracy". These words "money management" is not left solely to the professional accountant or financial manager by the way.
Children are getting super smart these days but unfortunately, this smartness is void of sensible approach to money. I have sat and watched parents spoil their children to the point that what would seem to a full grown adult earning a decent income to be a heck of a splurge personally, is regarded as chicken change to certain children. I mean, who on earth buys every single item that your child requests?
I sat one day in my office seat and observed a father-son discuss that to this day still gets me all baffled. Amongst other things said, the son goes, "I do not want so and so type of mobile phone because my friends would have had it already and so I want so and so mobile phone". A phone which turned out to cost a whooping lot for a boy still in high school. Now father brings out the cash he has in his pocket which was about a hundred and fifty thousand naira (N150, 000) and is pleading with son and son's sisters (who were present as well), to manage the hundred and fifty thousand naira promising that he would refund any excess they spent. Note that son was under 18 years of age. Note also that dad was not instructing but pleading with son. A son who was not earning any sort of income yet. Many parents erroneously think that spending a lot on their children is proof of their love for their children but, truth is that that is not love! So many parents would want to attribute their attitude to love for instance but I choose to differ in that opinion. Come on now, you do not need to express love by emptying out your bank account! So why don't you show God so much love too huh?
Now if you think "Heck I can afford it so why not!?" Have you considered the time and effort it took you as a parent to get to that financial level? Your children have not even experienced the slightest of challenges yet they are almost on the same spending level with you who went through thick and thin for years to get to where you are. You have made mistakes and learnt from them and as a result you now know what to do and what not to do to be where you are presently. True, no one wants to have their children struggle through life but a little challenge to tackle once in a while is good too. It builds their reasoning faculty more that quantitative aptitude, analysis etc learnt in school would. The world out there is different than classwork which of course we know. However, most growing children have to discover that.
Another scenario was of a colleague who said he had mentioned to his children what he had to go through to see himself through the University. How he had to do menial labour; farm work, anything to earn some money to ensure he could return to school whenever a semester began. His children told him that it is impossible for a person to live like that and survive!
As Rachael Cruze says, there are parents at two extremes; the parents who have their children so protected from the reality of the outside world that when these kids are finally through with school and are independent, they are prone to make so many crazy and wrong decisions because they had never had the chance to develop their decision making muscles. The other extreme refers to parents who just leave their children to their own devices and never put any form of checks on them. Dave Ramsey says that it is similar to letting inmates run the asylum. We do not need a guru for us to know that such children are also exposed to a whole lot of wrong decision making too. Parents need to draw a middle ground. Protect and gradually let them gain independence in doses. This does not mean that children who have their parents close guidance are immune to mistakes. Not at all. The difference would be that they are more likely to be guided away from damaging mistakes.
Children could be made to do chores for some form of little payments (rather than just expecting you to dish out daily, weekly or monthly allowance to them for doing absolutely nothing!). This gives them the impression of working. Even as they are earning from these payments while doing chores around the house for instance, parents can begin to tutor them on how to plan the use for the income they are earning. Children need to understand that money is finite. When it is gone, it is gone! They could set goals on what to achieve with their earnings, you know, short term goals of say two to three weeks. When they achieve these goals, there is a sense of accomplishment. This would instill in them the need to set more and bigger goals. It would also make children become responsible when you do not have to hand out pocket money, church offerings for those who are Christians and so on. Before you know it, they become more responsible with money. Children who grow this way will turn out better financially.
It is time for parents to review their parenting tactics if they want to have well grounded adults eventually.
Let us know in the comments section what you think is the best way to introduce children to money management.