Your Kids Understand the Economy Too

As parents, we sometimes don’t give kids the credit that they deserve when it comes to understanding things. Those little ears are always open and they absorb a lot more than we think. Everywhere you go, someone is talking about the economy, they are hearing about it in school, their parents conversations and believe it or not, they do listen to the news!

Sometime, ask your kids what they think about how things are going in the world and if they understand that money is tight, people are losing jobs, losing their homes and that everyone needs to cut back on spending. You will be shocked at the answers that you get!

They may not bring it up to the parents, but kids do have some ideas for stretching a dollar. Recently, I was talking to some kids in the fourth grade class of a local school and learned a lot from these kids. For a change, I went to school and learned more from the kids than what I taught them.

They have some great ideas on how to cut expenses and to save money. They told me that snacks are not a number one priority in their lives, they don’t mind giving up soda and switching to Kool Aid and shutting off a light in a room will actually save money on the electric bill. When I asked them if they had told their parents, about these great ideas, the response from over 80% of them was ‘no’.

When asked, “how come they never mentioned their ideas in their house”, they said that, “no one ever asked me”! Maybe it is about time that we, as parents, ask our kids for a few suggestions, they have some great ideas:

** Turn off the water when you are brushing your teeth and just turn it on when you need it.
** To turn lights off when you aren’t using them.
** Instead of keeping the furnace on when it’s chilly, just put on a sweatshirt.
** You don’t have to water the lawn all of the time, God does it for you.
** Save money on gas and do all of your shopping in one day.
** TV commercials just want you to buy stuff, so don’t listen to them.
** Have a ‘saving’ jar for stuff you want and then watch for a sale.
** Rummage sales are great ways for kids to make money.

Isn’t it amazing that kids are the ones that we could actually learn something from? It makes you wonder how much of this was taught to them and how much they discovered all on their own, after all no one asked them!

Jan Hayner offers tips and hints on home organizing and cleaning tips for parents and kids of all ages, from two to 100 (or above). Get your free checklists by going to www.organizingandcleaning.com.