Spending money in college?

What is a good amount of spending money for my son in college?  That was the question posted to a private university’s Facebook page.  Well, my quick, brilliant advice of course was “the amount your kid earns should be his spending money in my humble opinion.”

Well, that was not the desired answer as was made clear by the flurry of comments such as:

Earns how?  My thought “work of course.”

He is on the highest academic scholarship and athletic as well.  My thought “smart, athletes work too you know, did you recently watch the Olympics.”

He needs to learn to budget.  My thought “I think you are a little late for budgeting 101 when he is leaving for college.  Hello, what has he been doing up until now.”

The take away from my weekend – I’m so glad my 14 year old has a job, knows how to budget and is smart and athletic – not to mention what his 5 older siblings can do.

Kids learn what we expect them to learn.  If we expect helplessness, we get helplessness. No thanks. Running out of money is quick way to learn how to budget.

Helicopter parents make me so crazy!  My rant for the weekend.

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