Are parents to blame for lazy children?

Recently I was at a trade show with our CD-ROM Money Smart for Kids. This CD-ROM has 101 cool money making ideas so that kids can get out there and give money making a go. I looked forward to meeting parents and finding out what they are doing to raise money smart children.

I noticed something interesting.. The children who were there with their parents seemed to fall into one of two categories

1) Children who were keen to make some cash and had that special thing inside.. a spark of Independence. These kids had spunk! They had a fire inside, so did the parents. They wanted something different for their children. They wanted them to be strong inside and capable.

These parents were deeply concerned about how their children will cope when its time to head out into the world. I had admiration for the stories I heard, the majority of these parents did not believe in giving pocket money. If the children wanted something.. they saved up for it and earned it! These parents were all brought money smart for kids.

2) Children who did not care about making money. These children had, the nicest clothes, bags of goodies that mum and dad had brought them.

The parents of these children loved the idea of their children learning great money skills and really did try to get their children interested, but alas why would your child want to put in all that work when they can just be given what they want anyway..

I feel sorry for these parents, they are trying to do the best they can for their kids. They tried to get them interested, they loved the idea of teaching them goal setting, showing them how to achieve what they wanted. But the kids just wanted and wanted and were not interested in having to do things to achieve those things. Have the parents and the kids somehow gotten lost in the consumer world and trying to keep up with the Neighbours?

Have we forgotten that we are the masters of our destiny?

So I ask you the question.. Is giving pocket money doing anything to help grow smart, capable financially smart adults?

I don't believe you help your children at all by giving them all their harts desire. I also believe that you can trace this attitude directly to the credit crisis and recession we are in right now.

Somewhere along the line we were talked into being able to have everything we want right now! Just pay for it later, will it be our kids paying for this attitude for years to come?