Teaching Responsibility and Accountability to PreTeens and Teens

Does it seem your son or daughter always "needs" (or wants) money? One way to save YOUR money is to help your preteen/teen develop a small business. Your son or daughter will learn the life skills of work, responsibility, and accountability. He/she will experience the pros and cons of independent business ownership/management, learning self-reliance and customer service. Recognizing the value of money and making better purchase decisions can result.

Last fall our 12 year old daughter started a pet care business for the neighbors on our street. With just a few regular customers, she now has her own spending money.

She tithes to church and contributes to her savings account, developing positive life habits - all with no monetary cost to me. She bought her own Christmas gifts this year and even took us to lunch. My only investment is parental support.

Now she is researching her earning limits before paying taxes to the IRS- another life lesson in the making and I open my own purse much less!

By Meritmom from Byhalia, MS

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By 03/09/2006

I never got an allowance, but when we had money, I got paid to do extra jobs (like yard work, shoveling snow) I learned about money from babysitting and stretching the money. I think after my boys reach 10 we'll start paying for extra jobs (some you just have to do no matter what!) and do the savings account. I learned about money from not having enough, so I want them to learn without the scariness involved!

By 01/20/2006

when my children were old enough to work their paycheck was split 3 ways...
1/3 into their savings account
1/3 for school supplies and clothes
1/3 was theirs to spend any way they wanted to (within reason)
i'll never forget the day when i took the oldest shopping with her first $100 they had saved and walked out of walmart with 2 shirts,2pair of shorts and a pair of jeans and they commented how they hadn't gotten much for as much as they had spent

By Lindajeang (Guest Post) 01/19/2006

As a single mom of 4 I got checking and saving accts for each of the kids at an early age. Their $15 / month allowance went into the checking account and birthday, holiday $ went into the savings acct. They tithed 10% to the church from their earnings--we all worked together for the good of the family and were all entitled to have allowance for working together.

Every Friday we did Friday Jobs which rotated weekly: 1) dust, vacuum kitchen, laundry room, dust and vacuum their room; 2) dust and vacuum the living room, hall bathroom, and their own room; 3) "Blue Juice" --the youngest's name for windex! --all the mirrors, glass doors, tv screeens,etc., their room, ; 4) Kitchen Helper--set table, clear dishes and load/unload dishwasher daily., and spot clean tile floors.

Extra jobs--yard work, polishing silver, etc. could earn extra $, as well as babysitting, and part time jobs at age 16.

The little ones got strange looks at Christmas time when they wrote checks at Walmart and had no ID--my license worked fine! They grew up knowing how to balance a checking account, never bouncing, being very responsible. They got a credit card to take to college, which they then build credit in their own names.

The 25 yr old was 9 when I started this, the baby is now 16 and they all are very savy with money!