Family Finance /Who pays children’s bills?
Attach some purse strings to cell use, gas for car
Parents often get stuck picking up the monthly cell phone bill of their teenagers, but it appears they are less likely to foot the bill on filling the gas tank for the kids.
And if Mom and Dad play it right, they can glean some unexpected dividends with discipline when it comes to rearing children of the technological age.
Taking away a cell phone from a teenager who refuses to follow the rules of the house can be more painful than the traditional punishment of grounding them, according to Timothy Osberg, a Niagara University professor of psychology and a licensed psychologist.
“When you do grant them that privilege, you can use it as an instructional tool, a consequence to back up rules,” said Osberg, the father of two teenagers. “Taking the cell phone away is probably more effective than being grounded. It’s probably a younger teenager’s version of taking away the car keys.”
That’s because of the tremendous popularity of cell phones among teenagers, particularly when it comes to text messaging, a primary form of communication among the young.
“It is probably an impossibility to deny them a cell phone by the sheer weight of peer pressure,” Osberg said. “It plays such an important role in the lives of young people today, particularly with respect to texting.”
And again, Osberg refers back to his 16-year-old daughter and 17- year-old son.
“I never thought I would personally be someone who would text, but I have to admit it is by far
and away the most common way that I communicate with my children,” he said.
Given the cell phones elevated sense of importance, it can also be a tool to impart financial wisdom into the lives of teenagers.
Some parents work out deals with their children, according to what Osberg has picked up along the way in consulting the parents of other teens.
“Many times parents will mention they have an arrangement that they’ll provide the child with X number of minutes of usage and when they exceed that, they have to pay. It’s their responsibility,” he said.
Others, he added, require the youngster to either pay a portion of the phone bill from their allowance or their part-time job.
“It’s probably a really good medium for parents and kids to negotiate the child’s ultimate independence,“ Osberg said. “It offers a specific way where the parent says, ‘When you were 14, yeah, you were too young to pull your weight, but now that you’re older, it’s time that you take on some of the load.’ ”
Parents, based on Osberg’s informal discussions with other adults, are a lot less giving when it comes to tanking up.
“The parents may certainly underwrite either fully or in part the purchase of the car, but many draw the line there and require that the child to pay the bulk or all of their gasoline and insurance,” the professor said.
It’s a simple case of costs. Reaching into the purse or wallet and handing over a $20 bill to a teenage for gasoline gets old fast, he said, “especially when you’re putting two or three twenties in your own gas tank a week.”
