When you were a kid, did you ever battle with your mom about what you could wear and what clothes to buy? Are you looking forward to those same battles with your child?
There are strong forces out there ready to add to your “buy-me-this” clothes wars. Peer pressure to fit in, keep up, or stand out? Pressure from multidimensional advertising will be relentless. Can’t wait, can you?
Remember our favorite maxim? Keep the conflict in the child? No? Let me give you a quick refresher. “Buy me this!” is a conflict between parent and child. “Figure out whether you can afford it” is a conflict that stays within the child.
You don’t want to dread going shopping with your child. You don’t want to be constantly feeling the bind of indulging vs. denying. You don’t want to be constantly defending your decisions about what can and cannot be purchased. Life is too short.
A clothing allowance provides a healthy means of letting your child wrestle with the conflict between their wants and their limited budget. Deposit a fixed amount of money, automatically, every month, in a debit card account. One like Visa Buxx. With that money, children are free to purchase their own clothes, but that is the entire budget. No extras, no loans, no exceptions. (You can figure out a separate budget for special needs such as prom dresses and hockey pads.)
Having a fixed budget will force your child to make careful choices. And you’ll be able to say, “That’s a tough decision. I’m sure you’ll figure it out”.
So how did it work in our family? My daughter bought her name brand clothes second hand at the Thrift Store and my son wore T-shirts and saved his money for computer gear.
My daughter’s answer was, “Nobody knows whether you bought it new”.
And my son’s answer was, “Who cares”.
