Holiday money for 4yo

[LittleLionMansMummy]

We're off to France next week and we're thinking about giving ds a small amount of money - 10 to 20 euros - to start trying to teach him about how far money goes and also encourage a bit of responsibility. He's in such a rush to grow up bless him and we think he'd enjoy feeling a bit more independent. We will obviously pay for drinks, icecreams and food etc but he's always badgering us for small toys from those £1 dispenser machines and we'd let him buy sweets as a treat (which he doesn't have very often. I've seen some trunki wrist purses online which look ideal.

Anyone else done this with a 4yo or am i crazy to even think about it? If you've done something similar how did you get on? Thank you!

We've just done this over half term with our 7yo and it worked very well. She's not long started getting pocket money and she's money obsessed! I have a 3 year old and wouldn't do it with her yet. My gut feeling is 4 is a little bit young.

We've done this with our DS on every holiday since he was 3 1/2. We tend to give him £5 for the week and GP's often give him £5-10 too. He can use it as he chooses ie to buy one 'big' toy or lots of little things eg rides at fair, ice creams if no one else having one, postcards, comics, general tat. Once the money's gone that's it although obviously we still buy him ice creams etc. I think it works quite well although at this age they really are just getting a general sense of the fact you have to pay for everything but he also enjoys finding the right coins to pay etc.

We don't have particularly high expectations, it's more about giving him a general sense of the value of money as you say R00tat. He's really enjoying counting at the moment and loves carrying coins in his pocket. He goes to school in September and although in some ways he still seems young, he's a switched on little boy and has begun to describe things as 'expensive' so developmentally it feels right providing our expectations aren't too high! We had a conversation with my stepdaughter at the weekend (she's 15) about getting a Saturday job. The conversation was an eye opener. She's a fabulous girl and i love her dearly, she's fantastic with her brother and lovely with us, but it made me realise how lots of teenagers still have no concept of money or hard work yet still expect to have the latest iphone etc. It was totally different when I was growing up simply because by parents didn't have a lot of money. I think we've lost touch in a lot of ways and would like to encourage an awareness in ds from an early age.

He might also be interested in different countries using different currencies. It will give him a bit of independence. But expect him to buy tat!

We do this with ours they are 8 and 4 yo twins. They have £10 to spend and each time we go into a gift shop in a museum it's a chorus of "I want..." To which we reply "it's your money but remember if you spend it now and see something you want later that's it". They are all starting to think about whether they really want something especially the older one. It's great for us as parents as we have a set amount and I don't feel as though we are constantly pestered especially as trips out we're starting to get expensive. Some items are too expensive and we say no that is too much you don't have enough money. The 8 yo is starting to think about saving up cash and doing chores to earn some more cash to get what he wants.

We do this too - get him his own wallet to keep his money in