Would you pay for a Reading Festival Ticket for 18yr old ?

[bankofmumdad2021]

Essentially that. We have an 18yr old who wanted a Reading Festival ticket for next year. We lent her the extra money she needed and have said she can use Christmas money and pocket money to pay back over time.
She is insisting that friend's parents are helping their sons/daughters out and paying for some of it.
We want to teach our 18yr old the value of money and think it is good for her to earn it. She is not going to have huge debts if she goes to Uni as we have provided a large savings account that she can use for that. So we feel it is important for her to want something and manage paying herself for this one.

What do others think?
Is It mean to make her pay the full amount?
Costs £260 I think.

We paid,was part of their 18th

260 is a lot of money!
If it was a winter coat or driving lessons or a sturdy pair of shoes or dental treatment yes but for music festival! Of course if you have that money lying around and can't think of how to spend it well then lucky you1

The problem here is she expects you to pay.

I would imagine most parents would pay something towards the ticket, but it would be as a nice gesture. But the fact that she's about to be handed a nice little savings account to go to uni with suggests she's pretty spoilt already.

This conversation sounds like one you'd have with a 14 year old, not an 18 year old. Although I accept the pandemic has had an impact on young people's development.

I've never really understood this "I need to suddenly start to teach my almost-adult teenager the value of money". Surely you should raise your kids from a very young age to know that they can't always get what they want and that things cost money and people work hard to get it.

There are sooooooo many parts time jobs at the moment. If you can afford it I'd help but she could pay toward it.

If she gets an allowance then I think it's fair enough to expect her to pay for it. But I don't think you are teaching her the "value of money" particularly.

Buying it for her for Christmas is a great present. Why is she complaining about that?

I doubt that her A level workload is more intense than the workload of everyone else’s DC that are doing A levels 🤷‍♀️

We paid for our DD for Reading. Rite of passage after GCSEs. Lots of others went on holidays to Newquay or Aya Nappa. Reading seemed a fair compromise. She’d worked hard and did exceptionally well so we were happy to pay. She’s older now, earns a lot, and knows the value of her own money! No harm done.

If anyone cannot afford it, work out a compromise. DD never wanted to go again. Stuff nicked from unlocksble tents, her friend was trodden on snd couldn’t get help, and continual threats about tents being burned down meant she couldn’t sleep. Lesson learned.

@HostessTrolley

I doubt that her A level workload is more intense than the workload of everyone else’s DC that are doing A levels 🤷‍♀️

I agree. Yes A levels are hard work but I think it’s important they learn to manage their time.

My dc - and all their friends- have pt jobs in restaurants/ pubs in addition to school work, fairly heavy commitments with running societies etc at school, playing competitive sport out of school etc. it’s good for them to realise how much you can achieve if you plan your time effectively.

Yup. Mine worked a couple of nights a week all the way through sixth form, paid for her car and insurance as well as her social life and saved towards her start up costs for uni. She still trained and coached her sport, did some voluntary work, spent time with her boyfriend and got the grades for med school. It makes me eye roll a bit when people say their child is far too busy doing A levels to have a job - time management and prioritising are important life skills, coddling young adults too much doesn’t actually help them to be happy competent productive members of society.

Sorry to go off topic!

We bought DS a Leeds ticket for his 18th & he’s bought his own from savings for 2022.

@notacooldad

I don't get that everything has to be a " life lesson" with teenagers tbh. Sometimes it's nice to be nice just because!🤷‍♀️ That was my attitude when they were teens and it has paid dividends as young adults with their attitude ad relationship towards us now.

Absolutely spot on 👍

My DD asked for a Reading ticket for her Christmas present. She is incredibly hard to buy for as she never really wants "stuff" and rarely asks for anything specific so I was happy to agree. She understands that it is more than we would normally spend at Christmas so is a bit of a one off and there are only a couple of very little token presents under the tree for her this year.

I don’t see why DC have to learn about money so early either. It doesn’t mean they have the brains to get a decent job later either! A levels snd the best degree you can get is a great way to earning more. Not working in a cafe at 16. Mine didn’t work for money when they were younger but with hard now. None of their friends had jobs either when at school. Earnings post university are not determined by working at 16.

Yup. Mine worked a couple of nights a week all the way through sixth form, paid for her car and insurance as well as her social life and saved towards her start up costs for uni. She still trained and coached her sport, did some voluntary work, spent time with her boyfriend and got the grades for med school. It makes me eye roll a bit when people say their child is far too busy doing A levels to have a job - time management and prioritising are important life skills, coddling young adults too much doesn’t actually help them to be happy competent productive members of society.

Sorry to go off topic! - I'm glad you have.... this is always what I think when I see this. You get it on a lot of the University threads too "I don't want dc to get a job, I want them to focus on their studies" like there isn't time to do both.

All my DC bought their own. Reading is like a rite of passage, a step into adulthood and buying the tickets themselves is an adult thing to do.

@hangsangwitch

I’ve given mine £150 towards it and will probably be dropping him and his mates off, picking them up, sending him with bags of food and spends. I’m so happy they have the chance to go and have proper fun after the shit time they’ve had. Someday soon he’ll have left home and I’ll have all my money and time to myself.

I’m happy to help give him a good time. That’s what money is for and what parenthood is about. He has the rest of his life to learn how to manage money ffs. Why do people get so stressed about whether to just treat their kids with money they actually have!?

^^ this

At 18 I got my own festival tickets, including Reading!

My nan bought my ticket for Reading. I went down there on a back of a motorbike. I was 17 and Black Sabbath were playing ( back in the days when Reading was a great festival)
I dont think my mum ever found out!!

@Kite22
Mine went to boarding school and they didn’t have jobs whilst at school. So what? Did it make any difference to anything in the long run? No it didn’t. It’s not the most important thing in the world. Get a job and sub your parents if you need to.

My DD has bought her own, no questions asked. We have got her MCR tickets for Christmas.

I went to Reading festival from the age of 16 to 27. I paid for my ticket every year with money I earned from the job I had at the time.
I don’t get why this doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. It just sets teenagers up for a fall when they move out and have to pay bills, etc because they are used to everything being paid for by someone else.

@TizerorFizz No, not having a job at 16 won't affect your earning potential (maybe positively) but it sounds like your children have had a privileged upbringing, and that you're obviously well-off enough to support them. Not everyone can go to university, not everyone is cut out for academia or high-flying jobs. It's not just about learning the value of money, it's about life experience, fending for yourself, meeting people outwith the boarding school/university bubble. Maybe you don't value that.

@Bavarois
They do fend for themselves. They meet all sorts of people! They value money. Upbringing and schooling doesn’t affect you being able to do all of those things.