How to Set Buying Limits for Your Children

Taking children shopping can be a pretty difficult experience. They don’t know that money doesn’t grow on trees, so they automatically assume you’re just being mean when you say they can’t have something. Until children get older, they’re going to struggle with understanding why they don’t always get what they want. However, even with young children, it’s important to limit what you do buy them for several reasons.

The main reason you want to limit what you buy for your children is that you want them to grow up knowing they don’t always get everything they want. This way, they can become responsible teenagers and adults who are willing to work for what they want in life. If you are always handing your children everything they ask for, they’ll assume that people will do the same when they’re adults.

Another reason to limit the things you purchase for your children is that they don’t appreciate what they do have if they’re always getting something new. Take, for instance, a little girl and her dolls. Today, a girl who likes baby dolls might have five or ten dolls lying around her room. She might color on them or drag them through the dirt. If that same girl was only allowed to have one baby doll at a time, how do you think she’d treat it? She’d appreciate it more, so she’d take better care of her toys.

When children are allowed to have a little bit of everything, children don’t take care of what they’ve already got. This is just human nature. You can help your children become responsible citizens later, and take care of what they have now by limiting the toys and other things you buy for your children.