Teens and the Financial Crisis

Your teenagers would have to be severely oblivious to not feel the stress and fear resulting from the financial meltdown in the past few weeks. While we adults have few answers and little guidance on what to do, we can take some small steps toward helping our kids understand what is going on. We have been through significant market corrections in our lives, and we have the benefit of a longer view than our teenagers do. So, even if you’re feeling a bit shaky and nervous, this is a good time to provide some reassurance and perspective to your teens.

What can your teen understand and how can s/he help? This is an opportunity to open up a basic, or introductory discussion about what keeps families afloat, mortgages, long term investments, financial planning, and the like. You may discover that your teen is more worried than you think, so it will be beneficial to probe a bit so you hear what’s on his mind. The financial crisis is surely it’s being talked about at school, both in classes and with friends. Is your teen seeing his college fund shrinking? While you may not have answers or solutions right now, provide some reassurance that somehow things will work out.

Keep in mind that your teenager has far less experience than you do, and therefore a dramatically different view of the world. She hasn’t experienced the many recessions that adults have lived through; he may not understand enough about the natural ebb and flow of financial markets to have much perspective that somehow, this ship will right itself. If your teen has been favored by an abundance of material goods, a change in fortune might be difficult for him to fathom. Be gentle as you are honest and direct; try and be aware of your teen’s limited range of experience with which to provide context for today’s troubles.

Without going too deep into the details of your family’s financial situation, this can be an opportunity to bond together as a family and consider what expenditures are the most important and which ones can be delayed or put off. I’ll bet, with the right framing from you, your kids will likely rise to the occasion and willingly make sacrifices when you help them understand they have a role to play in finding short-term and long-term solutions.

When you begin to look for a silver lining, it really does being to emerge. Less materialism, a simpler life, families drawn closer as they face obstacles together, teens learning important lessons about what matters most. Am I romanticizing this? Perhaps. But I’m a glass-half-full kind of gal.

Motherlode, Lisa Belkin’s articulate and smart blog at the NYTimes, offers up some further discussion about financial discussions with your kids. An article in the Sunday NYTimes and this NYTimes video let’s you hear teen’s voices and concerns.