Mormon Parenting: Saving America (economically) one family at a time
Let's put together a couple of things that we think all of us can agree on:
1. The family is the basic unit of society.
2. The biggest threat American society faces right now is our sense of entitlement and our overwhelming debt (both personal debt and national debt.)
Conclusion: The only way to truly rescue America over the long run is one family at a time.
This sense of entitlement is the polar opposite of the sense of responsibility that we want to teach them.
The cultures around our children — the media culture, the peer culture, the consumer culture, the debt culture — all seem to be working against our desire to teach responsibility and work and delayed gratification.
As parents, we often add to the problem by giving them what they want, by bailing them out, by trying to give them things to make up for the fact that we feel a little guilty for not giving them enough time.
But even when we avoid this, even when we do our very best to give them responsibility and to teach them to work and to set goals and to earn their own things — even then, we find them losing motivation and really believing that they deserve and even need all the "stuff" they see on TV or that their friends have.
Even the country we live in seems to encourage and set the example of debt, of spending more than it earns and of believing that everyone is entitled to things they have never worked for or earned.
How can we break this entitlement cycle and rescue them from the entitlement trap?
We think the answer is simple but not easy. We have to create a family culture that is stronger and more compelling than all the other cultures that swirl around our children. Within our own homes, we can set up "family economies" where kids earn their own money by taking responsibility and doing household chores. We can set it up so they are paid in accordance with how much they do and so that they become responsible at a young age for buying all their own stuff. We can establish a family bank that pays interest where they can save and a family checkbook system where they can budget and keep track of their balances and even give to good causes.
If we do it right, and if we are consistent and conscientious about it, this kind of early training can save them from the entitlement trap, and our own little family economies can be kinder, gentler versions of the real world that can teach them how, as they become adults, to live in the indulgent economic real world without being part of that world.
And this, our friends, is the one way that we can save this debt-ridden, economically irresponsible world — one family at a time! And one child at a time.
Their newest book, now available in stores and online, is "5 Spiritual Solutions for Everyday Parenting Challenges," and their blog can be found at http://www.deseretnews.com/blog/81/A-World-of-Good.html. Visit the Eyres anytime at http://www.theeyres.com/ or http://www.valuesparenting.com/.
2. The biggest threat American society faces right now is our sense of entitlement and our overwhelming debt (both personal debt and national debt.)
Conclusion: The only way to truly rescue America over the long run is one family at a time.
One child at a time learning thrift and debt avoidance and delayed gratification and how to work.
One family at a time living within their means, sharing responsibility with their kids and avoiding the entitlement trap.
Let us explain what we mean by the "entitlement trap" that is snaring our children. Kids today seem to think they are entitled to whatever they want and to whatever their friends have. And they think they should have everything NOW — without working for it or sacrificing for it or saving for it.This sense of entitlement is the polar opposite of the sense of responsibility that we want to teach them.
The cultures around our children — the media culture, the peer culture, the consumer culture, the debt culture — all seem to be working against our desire to teach responsibility and work and delayed gratification.
As parents, we often add to the problem by giving them what they want, by bailing them out, by trying to give them things to make up for the fact that we feel a little guilty for not giving them enough time.
But even when we avoid this, even when we do our very best to give them responsibility and to teach them to work and to set goals and to earn their own things — even then, we find them losing motivation and really believing that they deserve and even need all the "stuff" they see on TV or that their friends have.
Even the country we live in seems to encourage and set the example of debt, of spending more than it earns and of believing that everyone is entitled to things they have never worked for or earned.
How can we break this entitlement cycle and rescue them from the entitlement trap?
We think the answer is simple but not easy. We have to create a family culture that is stronger and more compelling than all the other cultures that swirl around our children. Within our own homes, we can set up "family economies" where kids earn their own money by taking responsibility and doing household chores. We can set it up so they are paid in accordance with how much they do and so that they become responsible at a young age for buying all their own stuff. We can establish a family bank that pays interest where they can save and a family checkbook system where they can budget and keep track of their balances and even give to good causes.
If we do it right, and if we are consistent and conscientious about it, this kind of early training can save them from the entitlement trap, and our own little family economies can be kinder, gentler versions of the real world that can teach them how, as they become adults, to live in the indulgent economic real world without being part of that world.
And this, our friends, is the one way that we can save this debt-ridden, economically irresponsible world — one family at a time! And one child at a time.
Their newest book, now available in stores and online, is "5 Spiritual Solutions for Everyday Parenting Challenges," and their blog can be found at http://www.deseretnews.com/blog/81/A-World-of-Good.html. Visit the Eyres anytime at http://www.theeyres.com/ or http://www.valuesparenting.com/.
Love it love it love it..... So true, I wish we all would have learned that long time ago.
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