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I’m going to talk about how to shield your children from money woes. One of the biggest things you wanna keep in mind when you’re trying to take care of your children, when times are tough economically, is to keep in mind your limits and your boundaries. Boundaries are the adult-child boundaries. So the things that you may be worried about, you wanna make sure that you keep the adult version with the adults, and then share what’s appropriate to the children. Limits mean you also wanna keep an eye on what the actual financial limits are for you and your children.
Now how to do that when times are tough, one thing is to talk to your children. Now again, you don’t wanna give them all the details, because some of them are inappropriate for them. Older children you may be able to tell them a little bit more about what’s may be going on. Younger children, you may be much simpler with them saying, “You know what? Right now we are being careful with our money” whereas older kids that version may be, “Times are tough, dad isn’t making as much as he used to, or mom lost her job and this is what we’re doing.”
So that’s the next important thing. Once you’ve talked to them, you also wanna reassure them about what you’re doing to manage. Again, keeping some of the very difficult details, perhaps to yourself, but making sure they understand that you may be cutting back, that you’re looking for a job, that you have some savings, that you’re gonna always be there to take care of them. It’s reassuring them that the certain things and the basic things that they need will continue. And you can always reassure them that no matter what’s going on economically, they have your support, your love, your attention.
This is also really good time to focus on what’s important in life, and it isn’t always things that you can buy. It’s things that you can do together, and increase those perhaps. Reading time together, story time, game night, going out for exercise that’s free. So again enjoying each other, rather than just focusing on what you don’t have any more.
And then involve your children. Kids can sometimes be very creative. They wanna pitch in, they wanna help with what’s going on in the family. So maybe it’s everybody starts to recycle more. It’s maybe everybody cuts back on their activities or their expenses. And talk about it as a family, so it’s your goals together, and you’re working on this together.
And make sure you always keep in mind that you wanna give them a sense of hope, and that things are going to get better or little things that are getting better. And then make sure to be careful and always pay attention to how everybody is feeling along the way. And talk about how you’re doing, how you’re coping and how to manage what sometimes is just a tough time and hopefully a temporary time, and maybe can change some habits for the better.
