Borrowing money from young children

[mumtomaxwell]

AIBU to even be thinking about this? Our leaking bathroom is going to cost about £3k to fix. Our children are little (9 and under) and have decent savings in their accounts that I control and put money into and they don’t even know about.
The repairs can’t wait, so would it be terrible to borrow out the children’s money and gradually put it back over the next year or so?

as long as you make sure you do give it back.
my DM used to 'borrow' money from us a lot from the ages of about 13-17 and sometimes we never got it back.
the worst was my birthday money going for household bills, and I never saw it again.

It’s your money.

The children's money is NOT the OPs money - it's her children's money and belongs to them both legally and morally. Even if she originally gave it to them - once given, you can't claim it back!

But, in an emergency, it's OK to borrow it if absolutely necessary, as long as it's paid back promptly, in full with interest.

I put birthday/Christmas money the dc are given into an account for them and see that as their money (because it is ). Any other savings we can muster are in our names and always will be. It seems bonkers to me for the children in a household to have thousands in savings (given to them by the parents)and the adults to have none. Also, my normally very trustworthy, decent and lovely nephew got control of the money my sister had saved for him at 18 and blew thousands over the course of a year and had nothing to show for it and the end. No way would I take out a credit card in your circumstances op, borrow the money and see if you can afford for your dc to have so much in savings in the future.

Yes use the money. My children don't even have savings. I will help them as and when as my means allow when they are older, but they don't have savings per se in their own name.