Children's spending worries parents

4 January 2009 12:42pm

A third of parents think their children do not respect money and nearly one in 10 think they are too materialistic, a new survey shows.

The average child receives £4.98 pocket money a week, with half of parents saying they gave their children coins in a bid to help them better understand money.

Fathers are more generous than mothers when it comes to spending money, handing over an average of £6.33 a week, compared with the £3.92 that mothers typically give their children.

But 44% of parents worry that their children are simply spending their pocket money on sweets, with only 37% saying their offspring saved it, according to coin counting service Coinstar.

The survey found that parents in Yorkshire are the most likely to think their children do not respect money, with half claiming this is the case, while 15% of parents in the Midlands, Yorkshire and the North East think their children are too materialistic.

Nearly two-thirds of parents in the South East said their children were good at saving, compared with only 12% in the North East.

Alex Camara, managing director of Coinstar UK, said: "In these tough economic times it's worrying to see that such a high proportion of parents are concerned that their children show a lack a respect for money and that they also have a materialistic attitude."

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