Parents Take Some Responsibility for Debt

Posted by: Meredith K. | Jan 10,2008

I’m not one of those people who thinks that parents should be held legally accountable for the actions of their children (that’s, like, every “Law and Order” episode).  Sometimes this makes legal sense, but often it may just be case of a bad egg that’s entirely out of the parents’ control.  

Debt is another issue – we’re not talking about a violent crime here but the way a child uses credit cards.  While a college student is no longer technically a child, his habits in life have a lot to do with how he was raised.  I’ve written about how colleges need to provide money-management courses and seminars, especially if they’re making big bucks allowing credit card companies to market on campus.

But if your child is going off into the great unknown to get a credit card for the very first time, it’s your responsibility of parents to show some financial guidance.  Part of me wants to say that an 18-year-old should be entirely responsible, but I think that’s forgetting how naïve and wide-eyed a lot of freshman college students can be.  It’s difficult to remember what it was like to have absolutely no idea how APR works.  There are college students out there who think that a credit card just amounts to paying back the same amount of money you’ve spent.  They have little clue just how much is paid out in interest in fees.  

Really, it doesn’t take a week-long lecture to point these minor issues out.  For some incoming students who are so I the dark about how credit cards work, just the most minor piece of information can be a revelation.  As parents, though, I don’t think it’s just a dollars and cents game.  You should also emphasize the problems of being in debt vs. the strength of buying things you’ve earned outright.  The “shame” of debt might be laying it on a little strong, but there is some value in teaching younger people that debt is being beholden to someone else – a corporate entity at that – and that might speak to young people just as much as number crunching.  

Sponsored Resources Ads by Google