Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Kids and their attitude toward money

My coworker’s daughter graduated from Junior High this year. I don’t remember it being such a big deal when I went onto high school. However, times change and it is now a huge deal, which means a big graduation gift.

As her graduation gift, my coworker paid for his daughter to get her hair streaked for the graduation formal. It cost over $200. His wife doesn’t even spend that much at the salon, but it’s what she wanted.

Then he and his wife went away for the weekend, and their daughter had a friend over. They decided she might look really good as a brunette. $12 worth of hair dye later, she’s crying and saying she can’t go on living looking this horrible. So what can the father do but spend another $150 to get her hair fixed at the salon.

I don’t know. If I got a $200 hairdo at her age, even if I spent $200 at a salon now, I would do some serious thinking before I make any changes to it two days after. Also, if I messed up my hair my parents will probably tell me to wear a hat and wait for it to grow out no matter how much I cried.

It just sounds like this girl clearly doesn’t know the value of a dollar. The parents throwing in another $150 to fix a $200 hairdo she ruined just supports the thinking that it’s peanuts. It cultivates a blasé attitude towards money, and not teaching responsible spending habit.

Sure enough, recently I heard that she got a job at Ikea, and she promptly spent all of her first pay cheque on a new cell phone and furniture for her room.

3 comments:

Alison said...

yikes...that's just trouble. At least she has a job though...when I had a job in HS I blew all my money on clothes, haha! she'll learn one day...when she's a broke college student.

Anonymous said...

it makes me feel old saying this but... what's with kids getting their hair professionally colored and whatnot these days!?! i also have a cousin in jr high whose mom pays for him to get highlights or something... that just totally seems like overkill. i really don't get it.

mariam said...

Hi there,

Just stumbled onto your blog and I had to comment on this one.

This attitude towards wasteful spending probably did not occur overnight. She had probably been getting away with it for years.

While I can sort of understand her blowing her first paycheck in celebration, she'll probably continue her wasteful pattern until she gets a reality check that she can't cash.