Should I Let My Kid Waste His Money?

Care and Feeding | Slate's parenting show

Slate Podcasts

Society & Culture, Kids & Family, Parenting

4.6 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 28 April 2025

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On this episode: Zak, Elizabeth and Lucy take a question about how to handle birthday money. This parent’s son wants to buy some stuff in a video game, and while it feels like a waste… it IS also his money. So we’ll talk about whether this parent really needs to intervene. And then, we’ll circle up for a round of checkins… and on Slate Plus, we’ll vent about the end-of-the-school-year frenzy. If you’re not part of the Slate Plus community, we hope you’ll consider joining! Keep reading to learn how. Zak’s check-in: snark! Elizabeth’s check-in: we kept it together! Lucy’s check-in: calm (on the surface)! Join us on Facebook and email us at [email protected] to ask us new questions, tell us what you thought of today’s show, and give us ideas about what we should talk about in future episodes. You can also call our phone line: (646) 357-9318. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get to hang out with us on the Plus Playground every week for a whole additional grab-bag of content — and you’ll get an ad-free experience across the network. And you’ll also be supporting the work we do here on Care and Feeding. Sign up now at slate.com/careplus – or try it out on Apple Podcasts. Podcast produced by Maura Currie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Karen Feeding, the show where we raise the next generation together.
0:07.2	Hi, I'm Lucy Lopez. I'm mother to Amelia who's about to be 15, Avery who's 12, and we live in
0:13.6	Miami. I'm Zach Rosen. I make another podcast. It's called The Best Advice Show. I am dad to Noah,
0:19.7	who's seven, and Ami, who's four. We live in Amsterdam.
0:22.6	I'm Elizabeth New Camp. I write the family travel blog, Dutch Dutch Goose. I'm the mom to Henry, who's 13, Oliver, who's 10, and Teddy who's eight. We live in Tokyo, Japan.
0:31.6	Today on the show, we're talking about how to handle birthday money this parent son wants to buy some stuff
0:39.7	in a video game and while it feels like a waste it is also his money so we'll talk about whether
0:47.0	this parent really needs to intervene then after all we'll check in with each other and share
0:52.3	what's on our minds this week, too.
0:54.5	So let's get going.
0:55.6	We're going to take a quick break and meet you back here for our question.
1:05.6	Hey, y'all, it's Elizabeth.
1:07.0	I've got a podcast recommendation for you.
1:08.9	It's called Sold a Story.
1:10.7	You might remember we had
1:11.9	Emily Hanford on Karen Feeding when sold a story first came out. It sparked such a powerful
1:17.0	response because so many parents and teachers were realizing just how broken reading instruction
1:21.9	has been for so many kids. Well, there's an update. Some new episodes just dropped, and they're just as compelling.
1:28.8	They take you inside a school district that's been getting it right, teaching nearly every
1:33.0	kid to read year after year for more than two decades. It's not magic, but it's the kind of
1:38.5	story that gives you hope and real ideas for change. Go to your favorite podcast app and follow
1:43.9	Sold a Story. You'll be glad you did.
	...

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