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My daughter excitedly opened her piggy bank and counted all the coins and bills she saved for the past year. She saved up quite a sum and hurriedly asked me for a trip to her favorite knick-knacks store. In the past years, I wouldn't have allowed such frivolous spending. I would show my children their savings passbook and tell them the value of adding more to it. They would be extremely disappointed and confused but I thought I was doing them a service by teaching them how to save.
Over the past few years though I have learned that parents need to hand children control over their savings. This will make them savor the fruits of their savings better and they would learn how to budget it. Ironically, by handing them control over their spending they learn the value of saving more.
When my daughter and I took a trip to her favorite knick-knack stores, she diligently chose what to buy, carefully minding that she does not over spend because she wants the freedom of having extra money to buy things I wouldn't spend on for her. It put a smile to my face as she computed the value of the stuff and at the cash counter started removing some other stuff she thought she could do away with.
Now, she still has leftover money from her piggy bank savings and has drawn up a budget list for her CHRISTmas giveaways for the whole family.
Letting go is really letting grow.
P.S. My kids get a mall allowance whenever we go out, this tempers the buy me that, buy me this, and teaches them to choose wisely, read more about it here - Mall Allowance.