would you tell your kid how much you earned?

[theStallionOfSensibleness]

big discussion about this on hol wiht our mates.

he - yes hwy be secretive
she( and me) no wasy kdis go onandon abotu " my dad is richer than yours"

ditto voting - my mum owudl never tell me that

No.

My DD would blab

No. They wouldn't understand and I wouldn't want it discussed outside the family home. It is no one else's business.

no i would not tell them. They'd go blabbing it to everyone.

well our mate thinks ti sridiculous not to

no. unless elder dc was becoming too materialistic, i might show him incomings versus outgoings. so he knows we cant afford yet another psp game

I refused to tell ds for ages, but recently I relented and told him but on the basis that NO WAY is he to EVER mention it to friends or their parents and I will be VERY cross if he does.

My parents wouldn't tell me ANYTHING about money when I was young, even down to the price of a washing machine. And I've never understood whyever they didn'. I have no idea why the coy ness and it amazed me when I realised how much they cost since I didn't know whether they'd be a fiver or a grand.

And also he had been asking because we were looking at houses and talking about what we could afford etc. He's nearly 10.

Tell them when they are teenagers and can understand (ho ho) that the seemingly enormous sum you earn - compared to their Saturday job - is firstly taxed/N.I./pensions then you have to pay to get there and buy clothes to wear you wouldn't otherwise buy. Then that your pay goes in one day and the payments for mortgage, utilities, insurance go out the next and you only have a small amount to live on for the month, most of which they seem to require. They still won't understand, but they need to know how the world works.

i htink you are right to add that proviso www.
di nto tle mine ina million years

Not yet, but if they're wily enough they could find out how much we both earned, as we're both on national pay salaries.

I explained that it was bad manners/just not done to talk about it to other people. Plus I suspect we have quite a bit more than a lot of his friends and I explained about good manners being all about making other people feel comfortable etc and it would be a horrible thing to do. So I really don't think he'll blab.

or hell add a0!!

Yes, every detail, and what it gets spent on WHEN HE IS OLD ENOUGH TO UNDERSTAND THAT IT IS CRUDE TO TALK ABOUT MONEY IN COMPANY.

mY REASONING BEING THAT i WAS A WIDE EYED BABY ABOUT FINANCIAL MATTERS WHEN i WAS 20. wHICH IS RIDICULOUS.

oops

We've never shared that info with our kids. It wouldn't mean anything to them. Even with DS starting to think about careers, knowing salary expectations 25 years down the road wouldn't be particularly helpful.

They do seem to be well aware of what we can afford, though, and DS1 particularly very keen for us to save money at every opportunity. No idea why he feels this way.

Agree completely Jura - though with me, the difficulty was grandparents. My grandad was a self made man, and he couldn't fathom how I was 'worth' what I was being paid.

At one point, he asked me to come work for him and offered me a salary that was 1/4 of what I was earning. He couldn't understand why I didn't seriously consider his offer.

To answer OP - no, I wouldn't give specific money/income information to dc.

Message withdrawn

Yes I would, but I'd fudge the question til he reaches an age where he can understand what it means and that it's not to be a topic of conversation with the tax man anyone outside the family.

Oldest DS asked about a year ago and we told him family income. But he is a very private young man and understood all the reasons why it is personal information and not to be blabbed.
And one of my hang ups is that discussing money as a topic of conversation is crass.
We have also had lots of money and no money and he has seen first hand the ebb and flow of certain 'friends' and family so he understands why it is best to keep those issues private.

Should have said he is a teenager btw . Def would not tell younger as too young and too trappy!

no, she'd blab to everyone. we just say you don't need to worry about money.

No, because children cannot resist telling their friends everything.

One of my dd's friends at school has told dd that she is in receipt of a bursary and how much it is (and then said her parents had told her not to tell anyone)

I have major anxiety centred around money because my parents constantly evaded all my questions about budgetting, bills, the real cost of things. I grew up being told all about how poor we were! We weren't poor at all. They just used it as an excuse not to give me what I wanted.

They SHOULDN'T have given me what I wanted, but they shoudl have told me the real reasons why, and not said it was because they couldn't afford it, when I knew kids in much smaller houses with much poorer parents who got much more stuff - I knew my parents were lying, but i just assumed they didn't love me as much as those other kids' parents.

Kids think weird things if you aren't open with them.

I don't think I would no, but i know I was vaguely aware of what my mum earned because she is (was) a teacher and thats sort of a fairly standard salary. I am going to be a nurse so my kids will probably have the same sort of idea about what I earn.

My parents told me what my dad earned when I was 16 to explain why we were moving house (he got a massive pay rise) and I was sooooooooo shocked at how much it was. I think it was good not to tell me until then because it stopped me wanting and wanting because I thought they did not have that much.

TBH I am still in awe at what my dad earns and v.jealous!! Its not billions or anything BTW!