You overspend on your kids to give them what you lacked
You did without as a child, and you have quietly vowed your children never will — so you spend on them past what you can really afford, unable to say no to their wants. You love them fiercely, and the spending is straining your finances and, you suspect, not even serving them.
This comes from love, which is why it is worth examining rather than merely curbing. Reason asks three things: whose wound are you treating — the child's need, or your own old lack driving the buying in the wrong currency; what does the abundance fail to teach, since a child given everything easily may never learn the worth of things or the patience that scarcity, for all its pain, once taught you; and what actually shaped you — most often love, attention, and example, which cost little and are mostly not for sale. Give them that substance, and spare your finances besides. Let us look at what is really driving the spending.
What changes unlock by starting
- You see whose wound the spending treats
- You weigh what the abundance fails to teach
- You redirect giving to what truly shapes them
- You spare both your kids and your finances