Episode 223: Show me the money (and boundaries)

Feeding The Mouth That Bites You: Parenting Teens Into Adulthood

Kenneth Wilgus, PhD, P.C.

Christian Parenting, Christianity, Teens, Education, Teenagers, Kids, Kids & Family, Parenting, Religion & Spirituality, Adolescents, How To, Parenting Teens, Parents

4.9 • 714 Ratings

🗓️ 14 October 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Dr. Ken tackles the often tricky topic of finances with teenagers and young adults. From who pays for what to how much control parents should keep as kids become more independent, they unpack what it looks like to guide—not grip—the financial reins.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to Feeding the Mouth That Bites You, a weekly podcast guide on parenting teens and launching them into the world.
0:15.3	I'm Cynthia Yanov, and as always, I'm joined by psychologist and author Dr. Ken Wilgus.
0:20.7	We're back, Dr. Ken. How are you?
0:22.9	I'm good. How are you, Cynthia?
0:24.7	I'm good.
0:25.8	Hey, I got a call from a kid in college.
0:30.5	Who shall be unnamed?
0:32.0	Yeah, the only one that's in college at the moment before the other one who's taking a gap year before law school.
0:38.0	But I got a call and said kid said, I bought a boat. And I was like, come again? And he's like,
0:46.7	I bought a boat. Now, you know, my immediate reaction was to look over at his father, my husband,
0:52.8	and say, how much money, mouthing it?
0:54.9	How much money are you giving him a month? Like, who's buying a boat? I was buying
0:58.9	rawmen in college. Well, in his defense, he did, who works every summer, very hardworking
1:06.1	kid, loves to work, make money, manual labor, whatever he can do. But he bought a hunting, no, fishing
1:12.9	boat. And it's- Yeah, yeah, those, those camo kind of kayakey looking things that, yeah,
1:18.6	those are cool. It's not, it's not water worthy. Someone's going to drown. We have to, I mean,
1:24.8	there's, let's not even call it a boat. Once I saw a picture, I'm like, it looks to me like you bought a bad project. But it brings us to me. Did you say that to him? I did. I did. And he laughed really hard. He also said that he was going to keep this boat that's trailered. And let's use the word trailer, we'll loosely. I just air quoted it. He was going to keep it at his sister's place in Austin. He lives in College Station.
1:47.5	I'm like, no. the word trailer. I just air-quoted it. He was going to keep it at a sister's place in Austin.
1:45.4	He lives in College Station. I'm like, no, that's not going to Austin, nor is that a trailer
1:51.4	that's roadworthy. So we've had some conversations. Just to be clear, what authority are you
1:57.1	exerting here when you say, quote, not going there the authority that a sister called
2:02.5	and said absolutely not oh you're the spokesman for his sister yes and in addition to the one who
	...

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