Give Your Kids A Bit of This Western Culture

In the western world children are encouraged to get menial jobs once they hit their teenage years. Both their parents and society believe this encourages them to become more responsible and mature. Along with their new job status they are given small responsibilities at home such as buying milk, toilet paper etc.

Having had the priviledge of living and schooling in a few countries, this reality first hit me during my university days. My British-Polish friend, who got her first job in her early teens and has been working ever since, told me that she had to pay rent, as a young adult, while living in her mothers house. 'What' i exclaimed with my African mentality kicking into gear three; why and how could a mother ask her daughter to pay rent? Unfathomable I thought at the time.

She went on to tell me she was responsible for buying milk for the home as a working teenager. At the same time my mind went to my own mother and how i take what my parents do for me for granted as do most African children.

Financial discipline, though teachable in class, can only be learnt by experience. I have come to realize that helping your kids learn the value of hard work, responsibility and financial discipline is not a crime or a sin. Even the Bible encourages us to 'Train up a child in the way he should grow...' Such training actually contributes into helping them become well rounded individuals and gets rid of the 'entitlement' mentality a lot of African children have, myself included. It pushes us out of our comfort zone.

Though such practices are not common in our society, it would do us good to imbibe it. We, as children, would learn from an early age that mommy and daddy cannot and will not provide everything we need in life all the time. We need to work hard too!
Children are tougher than you think, under well supervised conditions and proper arrangements, why not give your child a chance to learn and become more responsible financially et all...


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