KIDS AND MONEY

Yesterday my family was out getting some last minute decorations and what not when we noticed a woman having an interesting conversation with the little boy who accompanied her.  The conversation, well, it was more like the lady forcing the kid, sounded like this, " You spend that money! When I give you money to spend, you need to spend it! So spend it!" WHAT? I mean seriously, I've never heard of anyone forcing a kid to spend their money so tough.  I thought it was absolutely ridiculous.  What if the kid wanted to spend his money on something that wasn't in the 99cent store? I mean DAMN!  What if he wanted to save it? Although this is a minor situation, it speaks volumes to me.  With high unemployments rates, why wouldn't we teach our kids the value of saving?  If we only teach them to be consumers they will never be wealthy.  I saw an article on yahoo the other day about kids who started saving money at a young age for retirement and how wealthy they are now.  Some kids saved their birthday money or allowance and invested in stock.  Some kids started their own businesses and saved that money.  Some of the older kids got jobs and saved their paychecks.  This is what I'm trying to teach my kids.  I want them to know that they can make their own money regardless of how old they are and to put it aside.