If You Want the Best for Your Teen, Teach the Importance of Hard Work

Parents instinctively want the best for their kids. During the past several decades, this has translated into spending a lot of money on them, as if parents aren't sure about how else to go about it. If money is no object, this kind of indulgence can lead to a horrible outcome I've called "the silver spoon syndrome."

I came across a terrific online article by Blaire Briody on The Fiscal Times website: "Rich Baby, Poor Baby: Overspending on Kids Is a Waste." If you're still raising a child, it's definitely worth a read.

An excerpt:

Simply teaching kids the importance of hard work trumps even innate intelligence in predicting their success, according to Carol S. Dweck, a psychology professor at Stanford and author of The Secrets to Raising Smart Children. Children who live in homes filled with books, regardless of the parents’ educational background or occupation, do much better in school, according to a 2010 study by researchers from the University of Nevada.

Did you catch that? No? Well, it's important. I'll repeat it for you:

Simply teaching kids the importance of hard work trumps even innate intelligence in predicting their success.

Think about how you could teach your teen the importance of hard work. Whatever you come up with, it will be the opposite of buying them expensive things.

There's a lot that teens should be told, but very few of them are. That's the reason I wrote these books...

Conversations with the Wise Aunt (for girls)

Conversations with the Wise Uncle (for boys)


Post by Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., Copyright 2011. Building Personal Strength . (Permission to use photo purchased from fotolia.net)