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When the financial status of a family heads south, it affects everyone regardless of their age. To the breadwinner, it may feel like being stuck at the core of the heat as they have to either honestly own up to the flux or be rough enough to scare off every possible question. While some children may be quick to notice it, others are too busy being ‘kids’ to let that bother them. To a teen however, when the amount of money accessible in the family lessens, this means disaster!
Beyond the change in the brand of sanitary pads and getting a ‘no outing this season’, teens nowadays seem to quickly sniff the inflation. In homes where freedom of expression is practiced, the concern may even be whispered to the breadwinner just in case there is something the teen could do to alleviate the burden. Letting your teen in on money shortage issues is therefore a necessity.
Despite the fact that most education systems are set to prepare children for the job market, as a parent, it is your duty to allow the harnessing of entrepreneurial skills in your teen. Noticeably, various institutions have recently been seen encouraging the children to learn how to make products that they can sell or use at home. Training the teen how to make detergents, grow vegetables, prepare tea, lemonade, sandwiches among other edible products for a jumbo sale will help them understand the safe ways of making money and hence load sharing.
While some parents may find this derailing, it is worth noting that at teenage, your child is more likely to feel humiliated by the money shortage problem than the other children. Unfortunately, if they are not well guided and involved they could result to borrowing unnecessarily, stealing, lying to seek favors, prostitution, and drug trafficking or even running away from home. Instead of exposing them to such vices, you could consider the following:
Own up to the money shortage problem; there is no need of hiding such a problem. Let your teen know that you do not know everything and that they are free to suggest ideas that could help get the family out of the financial trouble. Calmly insist that their ideas will be applied as a collaborative effort with the entire family. The most successful ventures are those that include all family members; refer to the Asian businesses. Ensure that they balance both school and the money making venture. If school going becomes impossible, let the school management know that you are not deliberately keeping the child out of school and seek help further. Openly discuss the venture’s cash flow with your teen. You will be surprised how much children know and can help. Thank them and appreciate every time they correct you, besides, they may be better entrepreneurs than you are and the money problem may just be the opportunity of you to find out.While it may not be easy to seek help from your own child, hiding it is more humiliating to your teen especially if they find out about the money problem through other means. Gone are the days when parents left their children with neighbors for the unknown just because they could not feed them. Your financial savior could be the same child you scold for not tidying their room; so speak or be eaten!
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