Silver platter generation

An acquaintance had decided to give his daughter $100.00 for her first tooth.  If you are like me, you thought, “What the heck, why so much?”  Shortly after I read that on his Facebook post, a question came up on a mommy site I frequent that asked,  ‘How much are you suppose to give a child for their first tooth from the tooth fairy?’ Fair question if the reason you are asking is so that you are not giving any more or less than other parents.  However, due to my ‘friend’ giving $100 I realized there is a much bigger issue here.

I grew up in a generation where our parents didn’t have much to give, so we got 25 cents from our tooth fairy. We were happy with that because we didn’t get many things up and above what was needed except for birthdays and Christmas.  But now times are different.  We as parents have more to give and so we do.  My question would be “Are we doing more harm than good?”

What is the whole point of giving money to a little one who lost a tooth and making them believe it was the tooth fairy? I looked it up on Google and there are so many possible answers to the origin of this. However, for this article, I would like to just simply state it is to help the child be excited about losing teeth instead of being fearful of it. So if that is the case can I just say that the amount you give is not important unless we as parents make it important?  Yes, your child might put the money in a piggy bank and save it and or be allowed to spend it.  And they might be the type of child that will spend it on someone else instead of themselves.

But the point I would like to make here is that rewarding your child with large amounts of anything is going overboard and if you keep doing so in any area of your giving to them, then you will wonder why your child ‘expects’ so much when they are older.

Teaching a child how to earn money is a more valuable lesson. There are many, many ways to do this. Learning that you get things when you earn them is the lesson that needs to be taught. If we are going to complain that we live in a ‘silver platter’ generation then we need to understand we are the only ones to blame for it. To clarify, if we have ever thought or said ‘Do you expect me to hand that to you on a silver platter?, then you know what I am talking about.  Let’s stop this generation from thinking they don’t have to do anything and can still get everything they want.  This is our fault and only we can put a stop to it.

*http://www.dietsinreview.com/slideshows/celebrities-wed-like-to-see-lose-weight/celebrities-wed-like-to-see-lose-weight/