Tweens are really just beginning to grasp a concept of what spending habits are like for adults. It does need to be explained clearly to help them understand.
My family and I went out this past weekend to buy a birthday present for our soon-to-be 12-year-old son while he was at a friend's house for the day. My husband and I had our other two sons with us. We into the store that we wanted to shop, picked up the item that we knew our son would love, and headed home with the gift.
Our 9-year-old was quiet for a while, and then asked, "Is that all you're getting him?" See, our kids are used to having about four or five gifts from me and my husband, so, naturally my son didn't understand why there would only be one for his brother this year.
My husband's response was quite different than mine. He took it that our son was being ungrateful for the fact that his brother was only getting one gift. I took it that he was used to us buying more gifts and truly did not know why we were only giving his brother one this year. After I explained that as you get older the things you want become more expensive, and that we were not skimping on the quality of the gift, even if the quantity is smaller than used to, he understood completely. He actually thanked me for knowing what he meant in the first place, and that he was not trying to sound ungrateful.
This gave me an insight into the fact that not all tweens (especially on the younger end) understand the concept of spending money. I guess you can say my son and I both learned a lesson this weekend on how important it is to communicate.
