TOO MUCH POCKET MONEY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 17780, 31 January 1920, Page 10

TOO MUCH POCKET MONEY

A PRESENT-DAY HABIT THAT MAY SPOIL A CHILD’S LIFE. A boy of ten years of age, whose father was killed in the latter days of the war, is now his mother’s idol. The lady is carryng on her small shop as before; and when not at school, the lad helps her to serve. When money is wanted for household expenses, she tells "Freddie” to take it out of the till. If he asks to go to the pictures and she says “yes,” it is quite the thing for him to get his entrance money from the till. The consequence is that he has absolutely no appreciation of the value of money—nor the real meaning of the word honesty. Sometimes he “lifts” a sixpence and says nothing at all about it. If “Freddie” were the only child in alike position it would be sad enough, but unfortunately many of our modern children are being given far too many “spends.” CASH USUALLY CAUSES TROUBLE. Where there are a number of children in a neighbourhood who

play together, the few who are oversupplied with pocket money are generally the ones to lead the others into trouble. Only a few weeks back a mother was going out for the Saturday afternoon and allowed her three children to have a couple of little friends in to keep them company. After tea, when the games they had played began to pall, the eldest boy and host (twelve years old) suggested that they took a motor-bus and went out into the country. The cost would be some fivepence each, but since he had plenty of money, that did not trouble him. So off they all set. When his mother returned after ten at night she was distracted to find that there was no one in the house, and on a neighbour telling her where the children had gone, her worst fears were aroused. Fortunately they arrived home safely but weary and worn out. This was a result of having too much to spend. CHILD EXPECTED SILVER—NOT COPIERS. Another ill-effect is that as they grow older they will regard money as nothing, and scoff at work which would bring in anything less than some fancy fabulous sum. Then, again, the children who do not get as much pocket money become envious and jealous, and perhaps a little grasping. "Oh, he’s got plenty, why shouldn’t I take it?” said one little girl when her elder sister reproved her for taking sixpence from a boy companion. The miserly child who puts every halfpenny in the money-box is an abomination, but he is far less likely to be led into harm than the one who flings more about on luxuries and amusements than some adults earn. A surplus of cash makes children “blase.” too. Recently a girl of seven, the child of working people, was absolutely annoyed because someone gave her threepence. She I said she didn't like coppers. The spending child has its spells of being hard up, and at such times there is a sort of craving to get money anyway. That is what leads to so many youths and young girls stealing. There are many objections to children being given too much cash, and it is to be hoped older folks will realise this and "go steady” in their generosity to the little ones.