Do you give your child pocket money? Is there such a plan?
Claire, the second sister of the doctor of economics who settled in Germany, was surprised to find out that her son, who had just entered elementary school, could exchange various items with her classmates with her classmates with her ninja cards. (The status of ninjas in the hearts of german little boys is equivalent to ultraman in China, and in order to follow the customs, I used "ultraman cards" in the title))
So, she began to think about whether to give children pocket money, which found that rigorous Germans really attach great importance to the "financial and business training" - there are professional institutions that have specially produced a "comparison table of pocket money and age for children", accurate to different ages such as 6 years old, 7 years old, 8 years old, how much to give, how to give; but also intimately provide the principle of giving pocket money to the baby, very detailed.
In today's article, the second sister will combine her own experience and share in detail German experts to give pocket money advice, don't miss it!
Exchange "ninja cards" as currency for something
The "financial quotient" of children is far beyond imagination
When a human cub enters elementary school and enters a class group, he begins to integrate into a real small society. This environment is completely different from kindergarten, after all, 6-year-old children have more "ghost ideas".
My eldest brother, who has been in elementary school for more than half a year, was pleasantly surprised to find that these children who had no pocket money actually opened the "market transaction" in their own way, the currency is the NINJAGO® card, and it is quite hot.
Here's the thing: For a while, my eldest brother rummaged through boxes and cabinets at home after school to find "NINJAGO Cards", regarded them as treasures, counted them over and over again every day, and carefully sorted them out and took them to school. He had little interest in the cards in the past, and they were all given as gifts for magazines and thrown in the glove compartment.
Buy the NINJAGO® card that comes with the magazine, the image is from the internet
I never understood how he could suddenly fall in love with playing "NINJAGO® Cards", until once when he was sorting through his big brother's school bag, he found four or five LEGO dolls that he had never seen before, and I was very confused and quickly asked him: "Where did these little people come from?" After all, he has not yet begun to give him pocket money.
The eldest brother took a look at it and calmly replied, "These, I used ninja cards to exchange with my classmates!" ”
- "What?" Can cards be exchanged for villains? ”
- "Yes, which villain is drawn on the card, you can change to a real villain, which is our agreement." ”
"But I haven't seen you bring cards to school recently, where did you get the cards for villains?" ”
"Oh, well, I exchanged cookies for cards with them!" ”
- "Huh? You actually exchange cookies for cards! ”
"Yes, not only cookies, but also pens or other toys to exchange cards, as long as two people say yes!" ”
The wisdom of the human cubs once again shocked me, they actually established a market model on their own, and also found a universal currency to play a trading function, no longer a simple and crude barter. This wave of "card for money" operation, play 666!
I also suddenly realized, isn't this the best time for financial enlightenment?
I went on to interrogate:
- "When you switch with someone else, what can they exchange for you with a game card?" ”
- "Just a random thing"
- "Anything?" A cookie? A pen? Or a toy? ”
- "Any one can do anything, anyway, a card can be exchanged for one thing!" That's fair! ”
Good guys, don't ask don't know, ask a frightened! This unexpected pricing logic of "one for one" gives me reason to wonder if big brother will lose all his belongings.
In order for him to discover the problem, I continued to interrogate:
- "Then someone exchanged a normal game card for a gold card for you, did you change it?" ”
- "Of course, I don't change it, at least two ordinary cards can be exchanged for one gold card for me!" ”
"So if someone trades a gold card for a chocolate, will you change it?" ”
- "Of course, a card and a chocolate, yes"
" So if someone trades a regular card for a chocolate, do you change it?" ”
"Change, no, I want to think....."
Speaking of which, the eldest brother finally found that there seemed to be something wrong, but he couldn't say it clearly.
I decided to hit the iron while it was hot, took out the simulated currency that I had been hoarding for a year, and took my eldest brother to start playing the game of stalls.
In the first round, I was the seller and the big brother was the buyer. I took out 6 WangWang team toys and put them in a row, the price was 30-80 yuan, there were zero and some whole. What Big Brother got was a bunch of simulated currencies, coins, paper money.
The process of buying and selling scenes is real shooting
The second round, it is interesting, this time we have roles to switch, I am the buyer, the big brother is the seller.
Every time I bought something with him, I reminded him that it was how much he had spent on the last round from me. The first two times he asked for the price, he did not care about the cost of his own purchase, I reminded him: "You spent 50 yuan to buy this car, you are now selling 10 yuan, is your money less?" ”。
The eldest brother is only enlightened, it turns out that selling things can also make less money, the world is really wonderful!
After my order, the eldest brother began to sit on the ground for the purpose of making money, and a car bought for 30 yuan started at 300, which directly doubled 10 times! As a rational consumer, I can only solemnly warn this merchant again: "You are too expensive, so expensive, I don't buy it, this car is not worth so much money." ”
The eldest brother is a little bit crazy by me, cheap is not OK, expensive is not OK, pricing this thing is not a human job...
But the fundamental reason for this situation is that the child has no concept of the price law of the real world, does not understand that value determines price, does not understand the fluctuation of supply and demand, and the value judgment of the item in his mind is completely blank.
Value judgments are very subjective, but if you think about how our own psychological price points are formed, it is not difficult to find that it is very important to give children a frame of reference, and an important source of this frame of reference is our past experience.
Big Brother finally has pocket money
How to give, how to give is appropriate?
After discovering big brother's "barter for card, card for money" at school, I knew that sending him pocket money could not be postponed any longer, and his behavior had sent a clear signal - it was the golden age to introduce the concept of money.
So, I began to think about how to give him pocket money scientifically. After all, a person who has never worried about money will never think about saving money, saving money and managing money.
And a child who can learn how to deal with money and the interpersonal relationships related to money from an early age, who can experience the joy of spending money from an early age, and the children who save money are not easy to save, they can certainly deal with money more freely when they grow up, and they are better at making trade-offs and planning.
So how to give it? How much to give? Is the direct quota given weekly? Monthly give? Or set some goals and reward them? Do not check do not know, a check I found that the Germans are really rigorous, in the matter of "giving children pocket money", there are very detailed, accurate forms and suggestions, basically do not use your brain, step by step to do it.
I've summarized them and now share them all with you:
It should be emphasized that the principle of giving pocket money -
Pocket money is neither wage nor labor compensation, but part of household expenses, that is:
1, pocket money is not a parent's handout, to give it will be given painfully and regularly
You can agree with your child for a fixed time, just like paying a salary, and take the initiative to give it on time.
Don't act as if you are the "boss" or "God" and ask the child to do this and ask the child to do that, and the child needs to please you or beg you in order to get the "pocket money".
German officials recommend that children under 10 years of age be given weekly and over 10 years old monthly, because young children do not yet have the ability to plan for a long time.
2, pocket money should not be used as a reward and punishment tool to control children's behavior
Many parents will link "pocket money" and "tasks", such as letting children do a housework, how much money to give; what tasks to complete, what goals to achieve, and how much money to reward, which is highly recommended by German officials.
For example, doing housework, each family member is obliged to take on part of the housework, and if you pay the child for it, this in itself means that the child is doing housework for money, not that it should be doing housework.
If you use money to reward children's excellent performance in learning or daily behavior, there is also a big problem, and the extrinsic motivation of money rewards can easily destroy the child's intrinsic motivation to do things. Give more, the child will only think about fighting for money; give less, the child will feel "who are you insulting". No matter which one it is, it will make them forget the original intention of doing things.
Similarly, using money as a punishment is annoying, even more annoying than as a reward, because people inherently hate loss.
3, pocket money should not be given too much, do not be too little, different age groups have different standards
In 2014, the German Youth Institute (Deutsches Jugendinstitut) published a report entitled "Pocket Money and Money Education", which contained very detailed recommendations about children of different ages, how much pocket money to give,[2] which I simply translated:
Image source Sparkasse, based on a 2014 report by the German Youth Institute and adjusted for inflation in 2020
This table already takes into account the level of inflation since 2020. The figure shows how many euros of pocket money children of each age should be obtained, and 1 euro is about equal to 7 yuan, which can be converted by yourself.
German officials suggest that the minimum age of more than 4 years old can give pocket money, for children over 14 years old, they should also be given an additional expenditure budget to meet their growing regular consumption, such as buying clothes, school supplies, mobile phone bills, etc. (the amount in the blue area in the upper right corner of the chart).
Of course, this is only a general recommendation rather than a rule, parents should make appropriate adjustments according to the specific circumstances of each family, such as the economic level of the city where you live, the income status of the family, the number and age difference of the number of children in the family, the rhythm of the child's cognitive development, and so on...
4, pocket money is the child's money, should be allowed to freely dispose of
The pocket money given is the child's money, of course, the right to control is also in the hands of the child, the parents can give advice, but can not intervene, listen or not listen to the child.
That is to say, if the child wants to buy chocolate, you don't care; the child wants to buy toys, you don't care; the child wants to buy a lot of gadgets in the buyer, you still don't care! Is it uncomfortable, do not understand, children waste money, use money to buy bad snacks, do not care?
yes! Never mind, children are constantly spending money, accumulating experience and learning how to reconcile their desires and budgets. Anyway, the pocket money you give is limited, and the amount is not high. For example, before the age of 6, around 5 yuan a week, even if you buy chocolate, how much can you buy?
Leave it alone means not to limit, not to say not to understand and guide. If you find your child's unreasonable shopping behavior, of course, you can analyze the pros and cons with him, but the final decision is still in the hands of the child.
Therefore, letting go of the parents' desire to control and giving children freedom is the gold standard for pocket money!
5, the amount of pocket money given to the child, parents do not need to compare
When mothers in the community discuss pocket money, I often see that everyone is afraid of giving less to their children, and the children are inferior, in fact, they don't have to.
I think social comparisons always come up, and they're everywhere. As parents, we should guide our children to reasonably digest this inequality, rather than deliberately creating a false equality for him, and we cannot protect them for a lifetime.
This part of the "money-related interpersonal relationships" topic, such as comparison, such as borrowing money, etc., in the follow-up column, I will share in more detail, everyone remember to continue to pay attention to our column Oh!
That's what I'm sharing today. In short, in the matter of giving pocket money, the biggest requirement for parents is to "delegate power" and give children freedom.
As we said at the beginning, the so-called financial quotient is to let children experience the joy and sorrow of spending money on their own, and to choose and choose for themselves.