As a financial columnist and parent, Ron Lieber constantly confronts the key issue that keeps most parents awake at night: that somehow in our materialistic world they are raising spoiled kids. Children of all ages are innately aware of money — who has it, who doesn’t — but they have very little ability to understand the nuances associated with it. If parents remain silent about this last taboo, unwilling to step in and help shape the conversation, they lose a tremendous opportunity for inprinting their own values, raising financially literate kids, and making sure that the next generation is ready to take on an increasingly complex economic reality. Here are some questions and answers by way of example:— Should your kids be told how much money you make?:By not talking about family income with your child, you are failing them terribly. Talking about money with children is not gauche and it does not mean giving yourself over to capitalism or bowing to the gods of consumerism. It makes kids feel safe, provides a reality check and gives them some sense of the relationship between work and providing for needs vs. wants. —What’s the point of an allowance?:Many parents view allowance as a reward for chores or good grades but it should be used as an educational tool to teach patience. A great system is dividing the allowance into 3 jars: one for spending, one for saving, one for charity.
—What is the value of child labor?: Children have become economically worthless yet emotionally priceless. Obviously child labor laws are a good thing but we have forgotten the value of work for kids who crave mastery, want more adult responsibilities, and benefit from part-time jobs more than random extracurricular activities that supposedly look good on their college applications. The Opposite of Spoiled is a promise to our kids that we will make them better at money than we are, and give them the tools they need to avoid the financial traps that snare so many young people. By learning not to fear money and shattering the taboos around talking about it, parents will gain a new sense of security that they are doing right by their kids in one of the most confusing areas of child-rearing and one that has broad reaching consequences for the quality of their lives. In the spirit of Wendy Mogel’s The Blessing of a Skinned Knee and The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, The Opposite of Spoiled is a dead on, provocative read.

About the Author

Ron Lieber has been the “Your Money” columnist for The New York Times since 2008, where his columns about student loans won the 2011 Loeb award, business journalism’s highest honor, in the personal finance category. Before coming to The Times, he wrote the “Green Thumb”column for The Wall Street Journal’s Money & Investing section and was part of the start-up team at the paper’s Personal Journal section in 2002. He has also been on the staff of Fortune and Fast Company magazines. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Jodi Kantor, a fellow New York Times reporter and the author of the 2012 New York Times bestseller The Obamas, and their daughter.