I’ve heard it said that a parent’s whole job is to work themselves out of a job.
Depending on the age and stage of your child(ren) right now that statement may make you feel sad or panicked or make you shout hallelujah.
Either way, the point is this: Children don’t stay children. They grow into adults. And good parents understand that they play a huge role in whether those adults are equipped for adulthood or not.
Equipping your kids for adulthood, a.k.a., working yourself out of a job.
My husband and I actually made a list of the things kids should know when going into adulthood: How to feed themselves, how to do their own laundry, how to change a tire, etc. We then started teaching them those things ourselves or making sure they were taught in other ways.
One huge category young adults ought to understand: Financial stewardship. Where does money come from, how do we get it? What should we do with it?
This is how we taught financial basics back in the stone age: Each of our kids got a special bank which had three collection spots: Giving, Saving, Spending (3 labeled mason jars would also do the trick). Using this bank, the coins and dollars our kids earned by doing work around the house, could be allocated wisely. We taught them the principle of a ten percent tithe to give at church. We encouraged them to save at least that same amount. And then they were free to spend the remainder.
Few people carry cash with them anymore. These days, financial transactions mostly happen digitally.
Tools for equipping your kids to handle money have evolved too. One example, Greenlight.
Greenlight is a money app for kids whose mission is “Shine a light on the world of money for families and empower parents to raise financially-smart kids.” Greenlight lets your child have a debit card of their own (which you can monitor) and helps them begin to practice managing their finances at an early age.
So that’s pretty cool.
But whether you want your child to practice with paper bills or plastic, whether they are earning money for vacuuming or they just got their first job…it’s never too early or too late to help them learn how to steward the financial blessings God has given.
That’s one way to ensure they’ll move out of your basement one day. 🙂