Children Have Never Had It So Good

I disagree strongly with the statement that “Children have never had it so good.” This is not true for many reasons. Plainly not obvious to adults, researchers and people of authority, children, teens and young adults have pressure and day-to-day expenses that add up to a fair amount of money.
If asked, I am certain my friends, peers and schoolmates would heartily claim they are dissatisfied with the amount of money they possess. If, on average, a sixteen year-old earns £24.77 a week, we certainly do not have it good! This figure does not take into account the fact that many people of this age do not engage in part time employment – which must be ‘juggled’ around school and homework - and may not come from a family financially able to readily hand out money for jobs around the house or as pocket money.
By day-to-day expenses, I am referring to not only lunch money, bus fair and such things, but the sources teenagers spend their money on – the things being a teenager are all about! Clothes, trainers, social expenses – cinema and bowling. All popular activities and seeming necessities to teenage life. Mobile ‘phones – a fairly recent addition to expenses of adults as well as teens – are surprisingly costly – whether used as pay-as-you-go or on contract. These things, not entirely obviously, have much to do with pressure put upon people of this age. Teenagers enjoy these things of course, but are subject to peer pressure to conform to the stereotypical view of what teenagers are, how they act, what they do for fun, own and wear.
I am sure researchers or anyone that has looked into this subject, has not taken into account that beyond a certain age parents and guardians are not willing to update expensive wardrobes to keep up with ever-changing fashions and buy trainers or shoes every time a new trend arises. This is also a tangent of the pressure issue. Nobody wants to be outcasted from friends, peers and schoolmates and regarded as ‘odd’ because their clothes and shoes, even weekend activities, are not the same as others of the same age group. At this age, these elements are essential to the life of a teenager for purpose of survival so to speak.
The reason for parental refusal to hand out money for things that, to them, seem frivolous is partly due to the idea of part-time work. I am in agreement with earning your own money and learning about finances this way, but I am strongly against the pressure put on people of this age to find work. Especially employment that not only pays a fair wage, but also will not interrupt with school and homework. It is quite a feat, as I am sure any sixteen year-old will inform you. Juggling schoolwork, social lives and other various activities and responsibilities is difficult enough, without job and money pressure added to the complexities of fitting in and coping these few difficult years.
I also believe that at this age, ‘children’ are aware of the value of money and its uses. There is no ‘urgent need’ to teach young people about something they have been bought up with, shown and already taught about from a young age. When at the end of an average week you have spent all the your money - hard earned or donated - no matter how much, without purchasing the more expensive items – like clothes etc. – you would have to be ignorant to the world not to understand money does not stretch far and does eventually run out! We may have had less experience in the bill, tax and insurance paying world, but in “our world”, we are learning. In these years of vital experience and setbacks, we reach certain understandings that prepare us for the transition into adulthood financing