What do our children really learn from us about money?
They see us buying, debating, saving, and sometimes giving in to temptation. At Poalim Junior City, children experienced managing money themselves, and while they worked and earned, we asked parents what financial habits they hope to pass on to the next generation.
In partnership with Bank Hapoalim. Working for money, deciding whether to spend it now or save it for later, and discovering that sometimes you cannot have everything you want — for adults, these are almost daily decisions. For children, it is an opportunity to start understanding how the financial world around them really works.
During the summer vacation, thousands of children arrived at Poalim Junior City in the Tel Aviv port, a complex established by Bank Hapoalim that allows children to experience, through play, working, earning, and managing the money they earned. While the children were making "grown-up" decisions, we went out to check the other side of the equation: what do parents think their children are learning from them about money?
"They think I print bills every day"
One of the basic questions in financial education starts with the first money that children can manage themselves — pocket money. However, as it turned out from conversations with parents, there is no single model that fits every family. Ortal Amar has pocket money and a piggy bank, but there is also a factor that slightly disrupts the plan: Grandma. "The one who gives most of the pocket money is Grandma, she says with a smile. And she also exaggerates. Every time she sees him — a 200 bill, a 100 bill."
With Ruslana Rodina, on the other hand, the system is completely different. "There is no pocket money, the account is open, she says. We are on summer vacation and they think that I print the bills every day." And what do the children do with the money once it is in their hands? The answers are familiar to almost every parent: gaming, food, small toys, and entertainment. "On nonsense, on squishies, on food, says Amar. Suddenly he wants to go down with a friend and eat a croissant he likes at a cafe."
They learn even when we are not teaching
Bank Hapoalim presents the involvement of children in family financial decisions as one of the ways to expose them to basic principles of financial education. But a large part of the learning happens simply because children watch us. "Children learn a lot, says Hila Liran, one of the visitors to the complex. They see what I spend on, how much I deliberate. After all, they see everything I do in my day-to-day life."
Eyal Boguslavsky says that even when trying to convey clear messages at home, the consumer reality is not always easy: "We are trying to instill in them correct financial conduct, but with all the stimuli of today and all this crazy supply, it does not always succeed." In a world where buying has become almost frictionless, the connection between work, money, and buying can be much less tangible than it was in previous generations.
The thing parents would like to pass on
When we asked parents what financial habit of theirs they would like their children to adopt, the same ability returned again and again: to stop for a moment before buying.
"I would like them to adopt restraint in the face of stimuli, says Boguslavsky. Less wanting something and getting it at that very moment." Liran talks about the ability to distinguish between a desire and an option: "I would very much hope that they learn with age what the right considerations are, when it is possible to treat yourself, when it is not possible to treat yourself."
For Rodina, the most important lesson is the connection between money and independence: "To be independent, not to be dependent on anyone, to generate the money yourself, to fulfill dreams, not to be afraid and to dream big." And there are parents who try to bring the children behind the scenes of the work itself. "We are constantly showing financial conduct, says Atias. Not necessarily how to save, but really — I started a company, I come home, tell the children, show them, and explain to them what we are doing."
Ultimately, children will probably not learn to manage money from one conversation or one visit to a complex. They learn along the way — from the choices they get the opportunity to make themselves, but no less from the choices they see the adults around them making. For Barkat, the initial fear was that children would simply not connect to a subject that is usually considered "heavy." At the end of the activity, his feeling was different: "The children loved it. From the feedback we are receiving, they enjoyed, learned, and simply understand the world of money much better."
