At what point should you start teaching your kids fiscal responsibility?
Most parents start by giving their kids an allowance and teaching them budgeting skills. Later on, if they still live at home as young adults, it might be time to start charging them rent.
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Well, a TikToker has raised some eyebrows for making her kid pay his own bills. The kicker? Her kid is seven years old.
She calls it a ‘parenting hack.’
I guess that’s one way to put it. The mom, who goes by @craftedandcozy on TikTok, says she’s been working on a scheme with her seven-year-old for the past two months that entails him paying his own bills.
Where does a seven-year-old get money to pay bills?
Fortunately, his mom pays him an allowance. She gives him a dollar per day if he completes everything on his daily task list. This includes the kind of household chores that most parents teach their kids.
Here’s her explanation.
“At the end of the month, he realizes that he has bills to pay,” she explains. “He pays those bills to me. He has rent, he has electricity for his room, and he also has internet for his iPad.”
She’s teaching him the difference between ‘fun money’ and ‘bill money.’
Most of us learn this later in life, so at least her kid is getting a head start, right?
“It is up to his responsibility to categorize his money and where he’s going to put it before the end of the month,” she says.”
He’ll get his money back eventually.
Like many parents who ask their kids to pay rent or bills, she’s simply hanging on to the money so she can give it back to him at a later date. Still, this kid is getting started way earlier than most kids.
She gives some more details here.
The task list is pretty reasonable for a seven-year-old: make the bed, brush your teeth, clean your room and put your dirty clothes in the hamper.
It’s definitely a fair ask, even if the bill-paying scheme might seem like a bit much.
Responses were decidedly mixed.
While some users applauded her for teaching her kid fiscal responsibility at a young age, others wondered why a seven-year-old needed to stress about paying bills each month. I’d say there are merits to each argument.
What do you think?
Parents, what age do you think is appropriate for starting to make these kinds of demands of your kids?
Let us know your thoughts about this ‘parenting hack’ and share your stories in the comments below!
