Can I have the credit card Mom? ----- Opinion on Student Allowances Dec 15 '00 (Updated Oct 24 '05)    Write an essay on this topic. Tweet The Bottom Line It's important to have limits, and just as important to stick to them. The 5 months before I was set to come to the college of Washington State University, I got a job at a restaurant in the area where I lived (Renton, Washington). The reason that I got this job, was that I didn't want to have to depend on my parents to put me through college. It isn't that my parents couldn't afford to put me through, or that I couldn't have applied for lots of financial aid, but I didn't want to have to depend on anyone else to pay my way through life. I am a pretty self-sufficient person, and I like to do things myself, so this came naturally for me. The problem is that sometimes things can come to easy to people. A good example of this would be someone who isn't looking for work, and wins the lottery. They are just handed money to start out there job-life, and they never come to realize exactly how hard it is to make an honest buck in the world today. This is what I see in many of my fellow classmates, and people that I associate with. Some of them are spoiled to the point of no return. When a student has their tuition, room and board, and a car paid for, and then they are handed the credit card to use whenever they feel the need, then they are getting off way too easily. And the only person that this ends up hurting is that student. While a parent might feel that they are providing everything that they possibly could to their child, the truth might really be that they are hindering the growth process that is necessary to mature into the real world. When kids are given free reign, and then sent off to college, there really isn't any way to keep them in check, and as I have seen, this can lead to disaster. Students focus less on the homework, more on the partying, and it becomes more of a joke that a reality to them. Now I am by no means saying that this is the case every time, but more times than not, those who have it handed to them take advantage of that hand. My suggestion is getting a part-time job while in college. It doesn't have to be anything tough or time-consuming, but it needs to be something that requires a certain level of responsibility. For when we are made responsible to make our own money, we start to see just how important an honest days work is. My advise to all parents is simply this: Help the students in your family by having them work for what you give them. Tell them to maintain certain grade if they want you to continue putting them through school. And you can always put them on an allowance that is livable by your own standards. I must agree that there must be a "fun" budget in a college students plans, but it doesn't have to go overboard. Just make sure that the money you are giving them is being well spent, and that it doesn't go to that Friday night poker game.

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