When your children are little, you purchase things for them that they may need or want. Once they hit the teenage years, that’s a different story. As the parent of a teenager, you need to have a plan for teaching teens to save money. When you child hits the teenage years the things they want seem to increase and so does the price. They still seem to think you have all the money in the world and you can and should buy them whatever they want.

Once they hit 16, they should get a job. But it can start earlier than that if you want it to. They can mow lawns, shovel sidewalks, or babysit. Working hard and making money will teach them the value of a dollar. Once they start making money they will probably want to spend quickly too. Teaching teens to save money may be difficult at first, but you need to do it.

Teaching teens to save money is important for their future. They need to know why they should save and how to do it. You may need to learn yourself so you can teach your teens to save money, but it will be a valuable lesson for you as well. The first thing you need to do is take them to the bank and set up a savings account for them.

Once you do this you need to set them up on a budget. Teaching teens to save money through a budget is one way to make this happen. You need to gather all their bills and their pay checks. Their checks will be different since they are probably not guaranteed the same number of hours each week.

You need to teach your teens the reasons why they need to save money. These reasons can include saving for a car, a special date, new clothes, or college. Teens want expensive things and when it gets to a point where they have their own money, you should consider making them pay for most of those things.

Teaching teens to save money can be a very difficult thing to do. You need to stand your ground when they try to tell you they have no need to save money. It may be hard for you, but you can do it and you will thank yourself for it in the future.

Your teen will thank you when they have a major repair that is needed on their car, or if they have to buy tires for it, or they find a new pair of shoes they “must” have. They will also be thankful when they are grown, married, and have their own kids and need money to buy their first house.

There are many reasons why teaching teens to save money is so important. Showing them how to save money will not only help them now, but in the future as well. They will be so happy you taught them these things later in life when they have a family and retirement to think about.

Now that your child or children have become teenagers, I’m sure that you have noticed a change in attitude and a change in their vocabulary. I sure remember when I reached my teenage years and the way my parents reacted. They were very concerned with my vocabulary and my, what they labeled, negative attitude. I also recall my attitude when my children became teenagers. I have found that most parents react the same way when they realize that their child/children are becoming more independent.

Teenagers today are being influenced in so many different ways that they really become very confused in which direction they should follow. Because of this confusion, which can lead to mild depression, it is very important that you, as a parent, become very involved in communicating with your child/children on a regular schedule.

A technique that my wife and I found to very helpful in communicating with our teenage children was to set up a schedule to talk with them. We decided to sit down with our children three days a week for at least 1 hour each day. There were no interruptions. Phones were turned off, no TV, no IPods, no cell phones, no computers. The only sounds that were heard were the sounds of good communication between our children and their parents. We continued this process for 6 years.

If you decide to try this technique then you must make a commitment that it will be a positive and uplifting experience. You should also realize that some old habits are going to change, usually in a positive direction. During your communication time with your teenager/teenagers you always want to communicate your love, respect and how proud you are of them. While in your family get together you always should be using positive words and ideas.

Positive words and ideas that you can use are; keeping a smile on your face, intelligence, leader or leadership, smart, friendly, attractive, good looking, friend, helper, helping others, serving others, positive attitude, positive words, good habits, good study habits, great grades, respect for themselves, respect for others, love of family, integrity and excellence and being the best that you can be every day. These words and ideas are examples we used during our communication time as a family. The results were fantastic and very rewarding.

Now, as you develop your own technique to communicate with your teen/teens, make sure that you’re honest and committed to help them develop a positive attitude and a positive vocabulary. You will be very proud of the progressive success that will be the result of you commitment.

Question – We are having increasing difficulty dealing with curfews in our home. Our teenagers want to stay out later and later and it’s hard for us to trust them. What can we do?

Answer – Isn’t it amazing how kids believe that they can have fun only after a certain time of evening (or early morning)?

Curfew ripe for power struggles

Curfew can be an area ripe for power struggles, conflict and frustration. When the subject of curfew comes up, many parents hear the same old refrains:

“Everyone else’s parents let them stay out as long as they want.” (check it out, it’s probably not accurate)

“When I get to be a parent, I’m going to let my kids stay out as late as they want.” (right)

If not handled properly, curfew can become a battleground with the parents playing warden to the teenage inmates, and kids sneaking out and/ or not coming home in order to “prove” their independence.

Control vs. management

Curfew can also be an area that can illustrate a useful model for managaging the teenage years.

Many times when parents phone me about a teenager, they say something like, “I can’t seem to control my kid.”

The problem here is one of control vs. management. Trying to control a teenager is like trying to make a gorilla wear pants:

It’s only going to frustrate you and make the gorilla angry.

Teen parenting statistics will show that teen parenting is still a rising occurrence in today’s society despite widely available sex education and numerous birth control methods. Teen parenting statistics also indicate that teenage parents and their child are both at a disadvantage in terms of health, education, and finances.

Teenage mothers face higher health risks than mothers at an older age. Such heath risks include anemia, pregnancy-related high blood pressure, underweight birth, premature delivery, and even death. Majority of these risks result from the fact that most teenage mothers lack prenatal care and not because of immature physical development. According to teenage parenting statistics, about forty percent of teenage mothers did not receive quality or adequate care during pregnancy, resulting in their children born with poor health.

In terms of education, teen parenting statistics show that while it has become socially accepted for teenage mothers to stay in school, unfortunately, an alarming 80 percent of them either choose or feel the need to drop out and only fifty percent of teenage parents who had their first child during the early teenage years will finish high school before they reach thirty. Additionally, teen parenting statistics indicate that it is more likely for someone who has had a child between twenty to twenty four years old to finish college than someone who becomes a parent before the age of nineteen.

The result of this situation is that the child or children of these teenage parents generally exhibit lower cognitive development compared to their peers. These children have the tendency to become underachievers academically and are more likely to become school drop outs, too. Teen parenting statistics also point out that these kids start to engage in sex earlier than most of their peers and have a higher tendency to repeat their parent’s past and become teenage parents also.

Economically, teenage parents who are not able to achieve a high school diploma or finish a GED program generally will experience more difficulty in finding a secure and well-paying job. This is evident in teen parenting statistics showing women who had children after the age of 20 earn twice as much as women who were teenage mothers. In addition, ten percent of teenage mothers are not receiving child support from the child’s father and forty percent rely on various government assistance programs such as food stamps in order to get by.

If you are a teen parent, the present and future challenges of raising your child may be too much for you to bear. If family, friends or your supposed partner is not offering help, keep in mind that you are not alone and that there are many organizations willing to help you.