Just remember, your kid needs money to buy pot and to to pay for lots of cool new clothes and stuff. Also don't forget sorority/fraternity dues, laundry service, tutors (for when they get too lazy to just buckle down- and we all know your snowflakes are much too good for the school-provided tutors ), and beer!

Oh, and don't forget football tickets and a GREAT cable package AND an Iphone!

Anonymous wrote:I worked my way through college. My grades and social life suffered. It all turned out okay for me but I really wish my parents were able to provide for me so that I could advance my career rather than wait tables for so many hours. I'm now a scientist and have students volunteering in my lab over the summer. These kids are getting so far ahead of where I was at their age not having to worry about earning money. If you can do this for your kids I would and I will for my son. I think taking advantage of career promoting internships still instills values of hard work but much more intellectually engaging. That being said you want to make them stick to a reasonable budget and if they spend more than that they go without - like in the real world.

I agree with what you are saying, and for these reasons I am saving like a fiend for my kids' college educations and associated expenses.

That said, I do not intend to fund their every last want - they will need to earn their own pocket money (for extras, not food/clothing/tuition) via summer jobs or very part-time earnings during the school year. And we will discuss the big expenses with them so that they see what the budget is, and where the money will be going/how we will allocate it.

I do not want them graduating from college without ever having experienced budgeting or saving.

There is a happy medium.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No allowance. Years ago adolescents were expected to have adult responsibilities to prepare them to transition to adulthood, now we are still treating young adults like school children. If more young adults had learned some financial responsibility then fewer people would be in such financial messes throughout life. I think my parents expecting me to take on adult responsibilities once I was an adult was one of the best gifts they could give me, and I pass that gift along to my children.

Agree with this 100%. This is why 25 year-olds are having "quarterlife crises" and are not able to deal with the stresses of normal life.

+1

Anonymous wrote:I worked my way through college. My grades and social life suffered. It all turned out okay for me but I really wish my parents were able to provide for me so that I could advance my career rather than wait tables for so many hours. I'm now a scientist and have students volunteering in my lab over the summer. These kids are getting so far ahead of where I was at their age not having to worry about earning money. If you can do this for your kids I would and I will for my son. I think taking advantage of career promoting internships still instills values of hard work but much more intellectually engaging. That being said you want to make them stick to a reasonable budget and if they spend more than that they go without - like in the real world.

Good post.

I have one major gripe against the “kids today have it soft” types. They do not see the big picture and they think that their way is the only way to teach work ethic, accountability and responsibility.

Like it or not, the competition for lucrative professional opportunities right out of school and for spots in top graduate schools is fierce – much more so than when I graduated from college 25 years ago

But let these folks tell it, it is more valuable for their DC to wait tables for change at TGI Fridays than it is for them to be a volunteer research lab assistant or a student volunteer at a non-profit tied to their major. Truth be told, those non-paying positions are extremely helpful experiences and can lead to tremendous academic and professional opportunities. I had minimum wage paying jobs in college, but my first REAL job out of school was facilitated by a professor that engaged me to do voluntary research for a book he was writing.

My college DD is an RA (so she gets free room and board) but we also insisted that she work part time in something tied to her major – even if that position is unpaid.

Anonymous wrote:I worked my way through college. My grades and social life suffered. It all turned out okay for me but I really wish my parents were able to provide for me so that I could advance my career rather than wait tables for so many hours. I'm now a scientist and have students volunteering in my lab over the summer. These kids are getting so far ahead of where I was at their age not having to worry about earning money. If you can do this for your kids I would and I will for my son. I think taking advantage of career promoting internships still instills values of hard work but much more intellectually engaging. That being said you want to make them stick to a reasonable budget and if they spend more than that they go without - like in the real world.

Ah, the refreshing voice of reason. It's a balm. And I'm the OP. Thank you.

I worked my way through college. My grades and social life suffered. It all turned out okay for me but I really wish my parents were able to provide for me so that I could advance my career rather than wait tables for so many hours. I'm now a scientist and have students volunteering in my lab over the summer. These kids are getting so far ahead of where I was at their age not having to worry about earning money. If you can do this for your kids I would and I will for my son. I think taking advantage of career promoting internships still instills values of hard work but much more intellectually engaging. That being said you want to make them stick to a reasonable budget and if they spend more than that they go without - like in the real world.

Anonymous wrote:Kid gets a job. Problem solved.

I wouldn't want this, unless it was some sort of RA job. I want my kid in college to focus on studying, not waiting tables.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No allowance. Years ago adolescents were expected to have adult responsibilities to prepare them to transition to adulthood, now we are still treating young adults like school children. If more young adults had learned some financial responsibility then fewer people would be in such financial messes throughout life. I think my parents expecting me to take on adult responsibilities once I was an adult was one of the best gifts they could give me, and I pass that gift along to my children.

Agree with this 100%. This is why 25 year-olds are having "quarterlife crises" and are not able to deal with the stresses of normal life.

Must be nice to have everything figured out and so black and white. Course it would stink to have you as a parent with your I walked 5 miles to school in the winter with no shoes mentality.

Anonymous wrote:No allowance. Years ago adolescents were expected to have adult responsibilities to prepare them to transition to adulthood, now we are still treating young adults like school children. If more young adults had learned some financial responsibility then fewer people would be in such financial messes throughout life. I think my parents expecting me to take on adult responsibilities once I was an adult was one of the best gifts they could give me, and I pass that gift along to my children.

Agree with this 100%. This is why 25 year-olds are having "quarterlife crises" and are not able to deal with the stresses of normal life.

P.S. Birthdays and Holiday gifts are great ways to suppliment the clothing situation. You can really waste a lot of money on uneccesary clothes.

Please be careful not to spoil your Kid. you as a parent want them to not just get good grade, but learn responsibility!

Parents pay for NEEDS.. food, toiletries, school supplies. of course we'd never make them go hungry or sleep in the rain.

Kid gets job for any WANTS ...partying, pot, strange clothes, presents for boy/girls friends, beer, tickets to concerts...and bear some of the burden for education (loans) so that they are committed to NOT wasting their own future money.

So how much do you need for food, and basic essentials? $300 / month? case-by-case basis for everything else. Keep a log of how much they BORROW from you, present it to them each semester for them to acknowledge and sign. According to the law, they are adults now (vote, serve in military), we should treat them as adults too and require they be responsible if they want our support. I love my kids! that is why I think it is soo important to make them grow up. If you don't make them grow up now, they will not be ready when they are really on their own.
I plan on having successful contributing citizens when they are done with college.

Just cause your parents were.selfish and didn't give you an allowance don't haute on those that card for their kids

Just cause your parents were.selfish and didn't give you an allowance don't haute on those that card for their kids

I got $350 a week plus CC for gas, clothes. I don't want a lecture here I know it was absurd.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1k a month

+1

And this does not include housing costs. This isn't much in a lot of towns for all the going out that college kids do. Plus, college kids don't cook much or at all, so they eat out a lot and it's expensive.

Cough cough - nights at the bar.