Debate Nirvana

Allowance gives kids money management skills and responsibility, two key life lessons that take years to acquire. We cannot expect our youth to pick up these skills quickly in adulthood, when they are occupied on many other pressing issues and their personalities and attitudes toward life are already fully molded and unchangeable. If we want our children to succeed in life, then we need to start instilling life values in them when they are young, or never.

By teaching kids how to handle their own money from an early age, kids will acquire an increasing sense of confidence to make their own choices. They won’t feel they always need to turn to other people to make decisions for them. Because of their exposure to money at an early age, they will have developed good habits and will be better able to handle increased responsibility as they get older. Also, confidence translates to other areas of life: school, athletics, personal.

As parents work with their kids on concepts, they will have the opportunity to discuss thousands of topics. That’s because money issues affect virtually every area of our lives. And the parent won’t be seen as a person who only says “Don’t do that” or “No” They will now be seen as generous people, encouraging kids through positive means.

Allowance is a two-use tool. By giving a child an allowance, you are positively reinforcing good values and behavior. By not giving an allowance because they misbehaved, for instance, you teach the child that what they did was wrong in an indirect yet still meaningful manner that they can accept.

In the real world, people are paid monetary amounts for jobs that they successfully complete. It teaches kids how the real world works and how to succeed and thrive in it. Without allowance, children would be left in the cold when they are forced to find a job and move away because they wouldn’t be used to any of the new things that suddenly occur after they become adults.

When children complete dozens of chores around the house, this can reduce the myriad of housework needed to be completed by the parents. By giving your child a few cents to do a long, backbreaking chore that younger, more energetic people would have an easier time completing, parents can save tons of time and do more important things w/ their time.

 In some areas, teens may be introduced to drugs or other things that can harm the child. W/ allowance money, these kids could purchase these harmful items. And to give allowance to children, parents must first trust that they will not fall victim to peer pressure, which many cannot. So overall, allowance does more harm than good.

 Yes, in a perfect world, allowance would be great. Teaching kids good morals, giving them money to be independent with: that’s all good…but only if the world was perfect. But it’s not. There’s crime, and violence, and drugs, and myriads of other things that can negatively influence children. Yes, ideal if we had allowance. But in this realistic world, allowances just don’t work. Unless the pro can get every single parent in America to agree to constantly monitoring what their child spends their money on, allowance will definitely do more harm than good to our society.  

Since parents cannot monitor their children every second of the day, children will claim they “earned” something or “did” something when their parent wasn’t looking and lie to get money. This, in effect, SPOILS kids and actually creates bad habits in children. If allowance could be practiced correctly, it may be beneficial, but as we cannot be sure that children are not taking advantage of their parents, allowances are detrimental.

Kids will get the sense that everything they do deserves recognition and reward. They will start badgering their parents to pay them for everything, which creates bad manners and habits. This will translate to other parts of life, like school, athletics, and social life. E.g. student asked by teacher to pick up an eraser- student will say “How much money will you give me”.

Children could adopt destructive values about money. In today’s complex, consumer-oriented world, kids may adopt values about money which completely contradict the values the pro side is trying to claim. For example, children could come to equate money with self worth. They will become hooked on possessions, on keeping up with the crowd, on always staying in fashion. They will adopt the attitude that parents are always available to bail them out when they need money; that if they want money, all they need to do is ask for it. This will lead to unrealistic expectations.

Parents will use allowances to motivate their kids to score goals in sports or to get better report cards. These bribes will teach kids to equate money w/ success, that money is the only real reward for achievement. They will get the notion that money can buy anything in life, and make unrealistic expectations of society.

When children receive allowances from their parents, they will start to think that their parents can always bail them out. They will grow up with poor money management skills, for if a parent gives a child his or her money, he or she will obviously monitor the child’s every payment to make sure that they money they gave their children won’t be wasted.