Mar 10

How to teach children responsible consumption

Small actions at home can help children acquire the ability to analyze real and priority needs by having responsible consumption.

We live in an era in which we have become accustomed to having what we want quickly without thinking about whether we need it or not, that way, in many homes too many things accumulate and we do not think about the damage they can produce in the middle environment or if they really cover a need and all this we teach to our children.

The value and administration of money

The current consumer society continually encourages people of all ages to buy. As children grow up, they mimic certain attitudes of parents. In that sense, if parents make unnecessary expenses, children will too. The best way to avoid this is to talk with the kids and educate them by example.

There are many ways to explain the value of money and responsible consumption habits to teach children to have a healthy financial life.

Regardless of the technique or game you occupy, your commitment and dedication to this task will be a very important component in your education.

Some ideas:

– Explain to them as a parent that they don’t always need to get something new such as Magformers or MagnaTiles toys: they can also get these used from Facebook marketplace, Craigslist, or from other families with kids that have outgrown these toys.

– For example, to carry out activities aimed at promoting work, saving, and solidarity since they are young, analyzing the real usefulness of things, the service they can provide to others, and the variety of uses that can be given to objects (including money). Small actions at home will allow children to acquire the capacity to analyze real and priority needs, distinguish desires and possibilities or gain awareness of the family and social-economic situation.

The price of things:

– Our savings decrease when spending money, therefore our purchasing power becomes less.

– Our savings grow by saving money, increasing our purchasing power. Learn more about How to teach little children to save money?

– Assess the possessions, analyzing the value of each and as a whole, whether material or affective. Learning in this way to care for and value what they have.

You need money to buy things:

– To make money you need to work.

– You must wait before spending, first analyze the pros and cons of buying something.

– There is a difference between what you want and what you need.

Advice on Responsible Consumption

– We can involve our children in the expenses and purchases of the house in a natural way, telling them things that we want and can not buy, or the budget of the holidays, by which we can go to one place and not to another. Explain that many times to get something we need to strive, deprive ourselves of other things to save and in this way achieve our goal. A succession of small efforts and deprivations of things that we want in the short term can lead us to achieve something much bigger and more satisfactory in the long term.

– Use the usual purchases to teach them the value of money. Show them how to plan purchases in advance, make a list of needs, avoid waste, and compare prices. Teach that you can go out to explore or know a place and not necessarily to buy.

– It is important that you measure yourself in the tastes that you give to your children, they should understand that they cannot always get everything they want, that there are limits and conditions. It is positive to know how to say “no” from time to time. In addition, to teach them to differentiate between needs and desires.

– Consume in a healthy way, avoiding that the family buys or prepares excess food that later has to be discarded or that supposes us an excess of consumption. Given this, we can only educate from the kitchen, raising with our children the preparation of dishes with them, so that they value each product and its qualities for health.

– Teach them to save so that they are able to manage their resources, take care of those they have, and understand that money is not unlimited. A good method is to help them set goals. Find something you want and help you save so you can reach your purpose and acquire what you love so much.

Recycle

Learning to recycle is becoming easier and more fun than ever for the kids in the house. There are many games and activities related to recycling and designed to teach children to generate less waste, separate waste, and reuse, thus reinforcing their ecological values and their commitment to the environment.

One of the keys to teaching how to recycle, and also very easy to remember for children, is that of the famous three “R”:

– Reduce: we must minimize our impact on the environment by producing less waste (plastics, nuclear waste, CO2 emissions, etc …) and consuming efficiently.

– Reuse: we have to get used to prolonging the useful life of objects and materials by giving them a second chance or using them for another purpose. In the event that they are no longer useful to us, we can always take them to a second-hand store or give it to someone we know who can be useful.

– Recycle: when you can neither reduce your amount of waste nor reuse them to give them a new use, opt for recycling. Dispose of waste where appropriate and obviously never dispose of it on the ground or in the sea.

We can also show you that recycling is closely related to saving since by consuming efficiently we make the most of the money invested in the product. Reusing, we are avoiding wasting money using something we already have instead of buying it again. And by recycling, although it is not directly, we are helping to save the money needed to get the raw materials to produce a good and what would be necessary to contain the environmental impact should it simply be disposed of.

Learn the value of what they have

Many times we do not realize that our children are receiving everything without paying the slightest attention of their origin. We can think that we make them happy by giving them everything they can want, even before they want it. However, the reality is not like that, when we give them everything they want, we don’t teach them to value things, nor to desire them.

Although our purchasing power allows it, it is very important for healthy development and well-being to educate them so that they learn to value things.

Ideally, the child knows that some non-priority things have earned them through an effort. So we will be teaching you the value of getting things on your own and not just by craving.

Take your time to “process the order.” Verify that it is something you really want and that it is not a whim of a toy you saw on television or that a school partner has.

Justify the purchases well, do not buy by buying, explaining that some toys are good for their learning or physical development and that others are only playful, although they are also important, they should be in second place on the priority scale.

But even in important things like clothes or footwear, it is positive to make them understand the importance of giving value to what you have. Parents sometimes sin to give everything to their children even in things where they do not decide as for example that a child has 10 pairs of shoes. We have to teach them to value that even if they have 2 or 3 pairs of shoes for them it is enough.

Reusing household items, donating unused clothing, recycle or making responsible consumption of light or water are positive attitudes for children.

Remember that it starts with us and, before you know it, responsible consumption will be part of your family’s daily life.

All the information that we give you in this article is for orientation since each child and each family is different and unique.