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About money: how to teach children to distinguish between "desire" and "demand" and set financial priorities?

Is it really hurtful to talk about money?

Even among mature adults, it seems difficult to discuss money.

It is even more difficult when we want to teach our children some knowledge about money.

For example, a child likes an expensive toy truck, but you are reluctant to buy it. What you are thinking is:

But how do you explain to children that "electricity necessary for family life" is more important than "toy truck"?

It is not easy.

Some things we "need" and some things we just "want".

Parents can try their best to give their children everything they need, but they can't guarantee everything they want.

Give a few examples:

Some necessities:

……

Some things you want:

……

When we have a certain budget, we can pay for "needs" or pay for some "wants".

If children can gradually understand the difference between "want" and "need", they can budget their own funds more easily and learn to set appropriate "financial priorities".

Mom and dad will also feel that their children are "worry-free".

It seems that this need seems certain. We need a place to live, clothes and enough food and water to keep healthy. These are the basic elements of survival and are indispensable.

So all other conditions are not necessary?

This is where the boundaries begin to blur.

Not to mention children, many of our adults' purchase decisions are based on subjective rather than objective (almost "double 1 1", you know).

For example, although food is necessary, do we really need strawberry ice cream and mango cake?

For example, although clothing, shoes and socks are necessary, should we buy ordinary sneakers or spend a lot of money to wear a pair of Adidas Yeezy Boost?

Not to mention relatively well-off families, even extremely poor families may not necessarily spend money on so-called necessities.

For example, the following example:

This is actually easy to understand, even if life is poor, as long as people have all kinds of expectations beyond life. Such as face and entertainment.

In the final analysis, all this is related to personal perspective and how to choose management funds.

How to draw a clear line between "need" and "want"? This is a difficult problem for children and even for us adults.

The following age-appropriate explanations and exercises may be helpful.

I. Theme picture books

Picture books are a supplement to children's life experience.

When children are young, some picture books on related topics can help children understand the difficult and abstract concepts of "need" and "want". Like this:

Marybeth Boelts's shoes

Second, the shopping cart discussion

When children go to kindergarten, children over 3 years old have more self-control than when they are 2 years old. Maybe he has some understanding: you can't get it if you want it.

So even if you see beautiful toys in advertisements, you may not talk to your parents.

This is a good opportunity to exercise.

We can write down the shopping list we want to buy today with our children. Even if children can't fully understand these words, they can draw pictures or use pictures cut out from advertising paper instead.

Let the children take this shopping list to the supermarket. When the mother and son push the shopping cart through the long passage together, let the children remind the mother according to the list:

What do you need to buy and what do you don't need to buy?

Third, create a demand diagram.

Cut out pictures of various commodities from newspapers, magazines and advertising leaflets. Then prepare a piece of paper.

Draw a vertical line in the center of the paper, mark "need" on the left and "want" on the right.

Then let the children classify and paste the pictures of various commodities cut before on paper.

What does the child want to fill in the "need" column and what does he want to fill in the "want" column?

Mom and dad can also try to post it themselves to see what is the difference between their choices and their children's choices. Then discuss your choice with your child.

This paste game seems "naive", but if we do it seriously with our children and intuitively distinguish between our "needs" and "wants", you may find that:

When our hearts are full of things we want but can't afford, we will unconsciously focus on these things.

The so-called "what you can't get is always in turmoil."

I have neglected what I have got and what I once loved.

I always feel deprived, but it is actually an illusion.

Fourth, budget work.

If your child is 5 or 6 years old, you can do some simple addition and subtraction operations, and you can try to let your child learn how to customize and implement the budget and how to save.

Such skills are very valuable in daily life in the future.

In order to make children interested, the calculation should not be too difficult. We can let the children know the price of the lower-priced items they like first.

For example, children like to eat cakes best. Then we go to local cake shops, supermarkets and other places to compare the prices of various cakes.

Then, the child can think about a valuable question:

Can we get the same cake with less money? Where is the best cake?

It is normal for children to have all kinds of needs and wants, and so are we adults?

However, all ideas can exist, but not all actions are acceptable.

Similarly, "want" is fine, but can you get it? Not necessarily.

We must learn to accept this.

Is this frustrating?

On the contrary, it is not a good thing to hold everything a child wants in front of him, and it will not play a positive role.

This excessive indulgence may also make children pay too much attention to material things, which may lead to a decline in life satisfaction and even an increase in the prevalence of depression.

When parents teach their children the difference between "need" and "want", she is more satisfied with what she has and more likely to become a child who knows how to be responsible for finance.

Finally, the double eleven is coming, so ask a question that hits the soul directly: