As Generation Z teens approach adulthood, they will face a series of significant milestones that can be more successfully navigated with careful budgeting and expense planning. From pursuing higher education to saving for a car, or even managing the transition to living on their own, these financial milestones can all be a little daunting.

Here we’ll discuss how you as a parent can help your teen more easily manage these big expenses in life and anything else that might come their way financially.  We’ll offer practical advice and mindful strategies to help you succeed it instructing your child and setting them on the right path.

The Economic Challenges Gen Z Might Face

We’ve all been feeling the effects of rising inflation for the past couple of years, but it’s important as a parent to understand how this could continue to affect your child as they enter adulthood.

Gen Zers are currently between the ages of 11 and 26, so some of them are already experiencing the challenges of adulthood due to rising costs. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that younger Gen Zers are destined for debt as well, but they might if they aren’t adequately prepared.

Interest rates are currently at a 15-year high, and while inflation rates have stabilized, they are 3 percent higher than they were before the pandemic. This means just about everything is more expensive these days and it’s also making it more difficult for people to get approved for credit.

Currently, most adult Gen Zers say that one of the biggest barriers holding them back is the higher cost of living. With so much of their income being sunk into housing expenses, they can’t save up and meet their financial goals.

There is no way to know for certain how rates could change in the coming years, but it is unlikely that there will be any sort of significant drop. This means if you want your teens to be prepared, it’s important to start teaching them how to be wise with their money now so they can be more likely to succeed in their financial endeavors.

How to Help Your Gen Z Teen Avoid Debt and Better Prepare For Life’s Big Milestones

Any parent should want to teach their child how to stay safe with money, but this is even more vital for parents who have teenagers right now who will soon be entering adulthood. Unfortunately, not many schools teach kids about budgeting and healthy spending habits, even though so many young adults in the past decade have struggled with debt.

As such, it is on you as the parent to teach your kid the life skills they will need so they are not so heavily burdened when they enter an economy that is difficult to navigate without a stable financial situation. If you aren’t sure where to start, the tips below can help as you start having these conversations with your teen about money and financial planning.

1. Help Them Learn to Budget

Learning how to budget is the first step to developing a healthier relationship with money. Only some people budget because they think they can easily keep track of everything in their heads. However, teaching your teen how to make a physical budget and lay out all of their potential expenses can help them get a better understanding of why it’s important to plan and save.

Having a physical budget that they can see keeps them more aware of all the expenses in their life and why, even though their bank account seems full, it is perhaps not wise to spend their money on some fancy new item they don’t need. It teaches them how to track their spending and why even though they might have available funds now, those funds might eventually be needed to pay for certain bills or big milestone purchases.

2. Talk to Them About the Importance of an Emergency Fund

It can be more challenging for teens to understand the importance of saving for emergencies when they haven’t needed to be aware of the cost of such things since you’ve taken care of that for them. Unfortunately, emergency costs often contribute to young adults finding themselves in debt, such as suddenly needing to pay for a costly car repair or emergency medical expenses.

These are things they likely didn’t think about as a teen. Even once they enter adulthood, it is hard to rationalize saving for emergencies when they haven’t yet experienced the fear and stress that comes with being in an emergency without enough money. That’s why it’s your job as their parent to help them understand what emergency funds are and why they are important.

3. Help Them Avoid Student Loan Debt

Student loan debt in America currently stands at around $1.77 trillion, and many adults say that this debt has created a significant hurdle that has kept them from achieving their financial goals. While the government is attempting to make education more affordable, it is extremely beneficial to teach your teen how to pay for college without ending up with so much student loan debt. You can also visit Tate for questions about student loan forgiveness to explore options for reducing existing debt.

Below are a few ways they could do this:

• Apply for things like grants, awards, and scholarships first (as many as they can).
• Continue living at home with you to avoid the cost of room and board.
• Take a gap year to find a job and save more money for tuition.
• Take Advanced Placement courses in high school that will limit how many college courses they need to take.
• Attend community college first and then transfer to a state college for their bachelor’s degree.
• Attend a local, in-state college as it’s cheaper than going out-of-state.
• If taking out student loans is necessary, avoid private loans and only take out federal loans.

4. Talk to Them About Saving for Big Expenses

Teaching your teen about general budgeting and financial planning is important, but it can also be helpful to talk to them about saving up for specific things, like buying a car. Your teen might already have a car, but in many situations buying a car is one of the first big milestone expenses teens and young adults face aside from paying for college.

You can use the following strategies to teach your Gen Z teen how to save for a car (or any other big expenses):

• Have your teen establish how much they want to save to afford the car and write down their savings goal.
• Help them understand that there can be additional expenses aside from the cost of the car, such as title and registration fees, sales tax, and insurance.
• Once they have an idea of how much they will need, help them create a budget that includes all their current expenses plus this new one so they can get a better idea of where they might need to cut back costs to help them save.
• Have them set up a designated savings account for the car purchase so they can start putting money into that account and keep it separate from the rest of their money.

In Summary

While your teen can also learn how to be more independent by taking on the responsibility of learning to budget and plan on their own, they won’t have the insights that you do from your years of experience. Even if they don’t seem that interested initially, they will likely thank you down the road when everything you taught them helped them become more financially stable and capable of achieving their goals.

About the Author
Katie Brenneman is a passionate writer specializing in education, mental health, family lifestyle and online safety. When she isn’t writing, you can find her with her nose buried in a book or hiking with her dog, Charlie. You can follow her on Twitter.

Children can learn and pick up much more than we give them credit for. This is to say that your child can receive an education on fire safety. Up until a certain age, parents must do everything to keep their child safe from fire.

However, children as young as three can understand fire hazards and preventive measures needed to stay safe. The United States Fire Administration (USFA) wants parents to educate their kids about the dangers associated with fire play.

As a parent, such an effort from your end can help prevent severe injuries and, in some cases, even fatalities. Wondering how to go about this? No problem! In this article, we will discuss three tips to educate your children about fire safety.

Practice Fire Drills

In the event of a tragic fire, your child must know what to do. This is why it is important to conduct fire drills. As a family, you should have a fire escape plan in place, which includes two ways in/out of every room.

In case of safe evacuation from a higher floor, install escape ladders. Have smoke alarms installed and educate them that when it rings, it’s a sign to start the home escape plan (not hide). If the room is filled with smoke, instruct them to get on their hands and knees to crawl to the nearest exit.

Once everyone has left the building and met at a pre-decided meeting spot, call your local emergency number or 911. Also, remind your children that they must only get back inside the property once advised to do so by a parent or firefighter.

Your family fire escape plan must be practiced at least twice a year in the form of a drill.

Teach Them about the Potential Hazards

From a young age, it is important to teach your kids about the hazards fire can cause. You can avail of opportunities while you and your little ones are near the stove or a burning candle. Let them close enough to experience the heat and tell them the danger of getting any closer.

Keep lighters and matches out of their reach, preferably in a locked cabinet. You can purchase lighters with child-lock features. Instruct your child to refrain from handling them without consulting an adult.

Despite their young age, you must teach your child about firefighters and their work. Perhaps visit a local fire department together so they can learn more about fire safety from the experts. However, as you teach them about this and the different types of firefighting foam, you must also make them aware of the hazards involved.

TruLaw notes that firefighting foam used to extinguish Class B fires (called Aqueous Film Forming Foam) is carcinogenic. This is mainly due to the presence of per and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, a complex group of 12,000 chemicals.

These chemicals have caused such health and environmental concerns that there is an ongoing AFFF lawsuit against the manufacturers. This will caution your children and make them aware of the dangers firefighters deal with daily.

Make sure you are not living in proximity to firefighting training facilities or airports. Finally, give your child hope by telling them that PFAS production is banned from the end of 2025.

Create Burn Awareness in Them

When your children are very young, all you can do is take burn-preventative steps by keeping lighters out of reach, ensuring all electrical appliances are turned off, and so on. However, once they’re in grade school, you can teach them ways to protect themselves.

This does involve instructing them to keep away from matches and lighters but is not limited to it. In other words, teach them how to dial 911 and what to say. Let them know of safe cooking methods, including –

• Wearing close-fitted or short sleeves to avoid catching fire
• Never throw water on a grease fire
• Using oven mittens to lift or move lids and pans
• Not playing around while cooking
• Turning the pot handles to the back
• No fooling around or fighting near the stovetop

Also, teach your kids how to remain safe around heaters or fireplaces. As for electrical safety, instruct them to –

• Not climb electrical towers or poles (or even trees near power lines)
• Not fly kites anywhere near power lines
• Be careful around extension cords – do not step on them, overload them, or have them run under carpets or behind furniture.

As we close, let’s look at the shocking fire-related statistics. According to the National Safety Council, 3,790 civilian deaths occurred due to fires (along with 13,250 injuries). That same year, 1,504,500 fires broke out across the US.

In light of such figures, it is extremely crucial to teach children about fire safety from a young age. This will ensure their safety and give you peace of mind as a parent.

In Conclusion

Beyond warning children about the dangers of fire and how to protect, there are other ways to engage kids in fire education that are also fun.  Teach kids about first responders who are trained to put our fires, the fire houses they work in, and the fire trucks they ride in.  At home or in school, learning about fire doesn’t have to be all about the negatives. There are careers built around fire prevention and safety that are exciting for kids to explore.

Additional Reading

Learn how to childproof your home beyond the basics.

It’s not uncommon but it has become a significant challenge for parents to maintain a healthy balance between managing screen time and encouraging real-time experiences for their children. Technology has become an integral part of our everyday lives, and there’s just no way around it.

The key to navigating this challenge is to balance using technology and engaging in activities like playing sports, playing outside with other kids, etc. While today’s tech has numerous benefits for parents and children alike, it also brings complex challenges that parents must navigate effectively to ensure a healthy upbringing for their children.

Here we will do our best to discuss some of the biggest challenges parents have to encounter when it comes to raising their children.  We’ll explore what steps they can take to navigate these complex challenges to ensure that their children don’t get sucked into technology at the expense of having a healthy balanced childhood.  One where they are fully engaged in regular activities with personal interactions with others.

What Are Some Of The Challenges Parents Face In The Digital Age?

Parenting in the age of screens presents several challenges that parents must navigate to encourage healthy development in their children. Here are some of the key challenges:

1) Screen Time Addiction

Children can become addicted to screens, and they spend many hours on their devices.  Whether it’s for entertainment or scrolling  social media, sleep can be negatively impacted.  Physical activity and real-time interactions with other people can suffer. It can become a challenge for parents to set screen time limits, especially since screens are ubiquitous and they need their devices for online education.

2) Negative Impacts On Children’s Health

When children have excessive screen time, they’re living a sedentary lifestyle, which has highly negative consequences for their health. It can also contribute to health issues like obesity since they’re sitting most of the day and not engaging in any physical activities. Excessive screen use can also contribute to eye strain, especially if they use devices close to bedtime. Increased time in front of a screen also means more exposure to content that can effect their overall well-being, such as social pressures.

3) Exposure To Inappropriate Content

If kids are left unsupervised with too much screen time, they can be exposed to harmful and inappropriate online content. This can involve cyberbullying, explicit content, and unsafe websites. When kids use screens most of the time, it can hinder the development of their social skills, as children have virtually no face-to-face interactions. Children can also be vulnerable to online predators, and parents need to educate their children about online safety and establish guidelines when sharing personal information.

4) Impact On Mental Health

Excessive screen time on social media has been linked to mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, and lack of self-esteem. Exposure to curated and idealized online lives and influencers can create unhealthy comparisons. Some children will focus on promoting their own online image and become obsessive about it.  Others will try to engage to feel better about themselves and this can open the door to cyberbullying for being different.

5) Online Education Challenges

While many educational apps and websites aid in students’ learning, ensuring the content is quality and aligns with educational goals can be challenging. Screens can be a considerable distraction to learning. It becomes too easy for a child’s attention to be diverted away by social media and games.  This results in children cannot fully focus on their studies.  Students can become master or multitasking on multiple online activities, but this should not be seen as a strength. Kids need to learn how to focus on a specific task at hand.

6) Virtual Friendships vs Local Friends

Many children form friendships online with peers they’ve never met in person. These happen naturally through online games, social media, or chat platforms. While these connections offer a sense of belonging, they may come at the expense of building local, in-person relationships. It can become too easy for a child to focus on their virtual friends and miss out on learning lifelong skills of getting to know new people in various walks of life.   It also results in more screen time when they could be offline developing real-world friendships.

How Can Parents Tackle These Challenges Head On?

Addressing the challenges mentioned above requires a combination of parental guidance, promoting digital literacy, and setting boundaries.  It entails creating a healthy balance between screen time and playful activities. Parents must stay updated with the latest technological trends and be actively involved in digital lives of their children. So, how can parents navigate these challenges to enhance the well-being of their children? Let’s find out.

1) Encourage Physical Activities

The first thing parents need to do is encourage physical activities and more outdoor activities in their children. Sitting at home with their noses buried in screens all day is never a good thing. Physical activity is critical for the child’s development and necessary for the healthy growth of their muscles and bones. It’s also feeds their brains with oxygen and healthy endorphins that promote a positive response to repeating health behaviors.

2) Establishing Tech-Free Zones

Parents should make a rule that certain areas in the house will be designated as tech-free zones. Bedrooms can be screen-free zone, especially at bedtime. Establishing tech-free times during mealtime promotes family bonding and encourages conversation and mindfulness while eating.  Encourage activities outdoors without a phone in their pocket that will continually draw them to look at it.

3) Use Parental Control Software

Parents need to establish strict parental controls for protecting Kids online privacy. By installing parental controls and monitoring tools to restrict access to inappropriate content, children can be saved from being exposed to explicit and unsuitable content at a young age. There are multiple parental control apps that you can choose from. Google, for example, has Family Link, which helps families create healthy and positive digital habits. They can better understand how their child spends time on their device, share their location, and manage privacy settings.

4) Teaching Digital Literacy To Kids

Parents should educate their children about online safety, privacy, and the potential risks of sharing personal and confidential information online. They should foster critical thinking skills in their children so that they can evaluate the reliability and credibility of information that gets shared online.

5) Setting Healthy Screen Time Limits For Children

Establishing screen time limits for children to ensure their well-being and development is essential. Develop these guidelines with your children and involve them in the decision-making process. Kids of all ages should be regularly guided towards screen free activities for a balanced life.

For infants under 18 months old, it’s best to avoid screens entirely unless you’re on video calls with friends or family and they want to see them. Parents can introduce limited screen time between 18 and 24 months, but only if they actively engage with the child. From ages 2-5, they can have screen time for less than one hour per day, given that the parent or caregiver is co-viewing with them.

6) Modeling Healthy Screen Habits

Children follow by example and what their parents model for them. Demonstrating responsible screen time usage sets a strong example. Be mindful of your screen time and teach your children that their devices are practical tools for education, entertainment, and learning, but all in moderation. It would help if you engage your children in a discussion about the negative implications of using devices on their well-being and development.

Create an open and non-judgmental space for your children so they can come to you if they have any concerns about the online world. Encourage them to come to you immediately if they encounter anything that makes them uncomfortable online or have concerns regarding any online content they saw.

Conclusion

Parenting in the digital age is a mix of benefits and downsides with many nuances.  While technology offers convenience, like entertainment and other educational tools, it also provides challenges when it comes to ensuring that children can have a normal childhood, not filled with technology and an overabundance of screens.

There are ways that parents can tackle these issues to ensure that their kids can strike a healthy balance between using screens and engaging in healthy activities, which includes playing outside and having real-time interactions to boost their social skills. This guide lays down the most effective steps to help children move away from screens and engage with the real world. A healthy balance and moderation is all you need.

If the laughter of children is music to your ears and their boundless energy fuels your spirit, then a vocation amongst them might be your calling. From shaping young minds as an educator to offering healing as a therapist, there’s a rich tapestry of career paths that beckon you.

These roles demand a heart, both lion-strong and lamb-gentle, but the rewards are great. Explore these pathways where your love for working with kids could transform into life’s work.

10 Career Paths to Consider if You Love Working With Kids

Are you passionate about making a positive impact on children’s lives? Explore these 10 career paths tailored for those who love nurturing and guiding the younger generation.

1. Elementary School Teacher

As an elementary school teacher, you are the conductor of a classroom symphony—a blend of curiosity, energy, and potential. It’s about igniting sparks with the flick of a science experiment or the turn of a storybook page, nurturing dreams as each day unfolds into an educational journey.

It’s about igniting sparks with the flick of a science experiment or the turn of a storybook page, nurturing dreams as each day unfolds into an educational journey. There is always a high-demand for quality educators — explore NT teaching jobs to get a glimpse of what you can expect as a full-time teacher.

2. Child Psychologist

Consider the child psychologist—part sleuth, part confidant, unraveling the yarn of young minds. It’s a dance between nurture and nature, where your guidance lights paths through emotional mazes. In every session is sown the seed of resilience and a chance to rewrite narratives.

3. Counselor

Consider embarking on a journey as a counselor. You’ll be empowered to make a difference in children’s lives. A profound understanding of their developmental phases is key. Meeting the master’s degree in counseling requirements opens doors to even more opportunities.

4. Pediatric Nurse

Lean in and picture the warm, steady pulse in a day of the life of a pediatric nurse—where stethoscopes meet storybooks. It’s where bandaids pair with brave smiles, compassion is the daily prescription, and every ‘ouch’ is met with an expert blend of care and comfort.

5. Social Worker

Visualize the life of a social worker: a steadfast beacon in turbulent seas for families. They sew hope into homes and schools, turning chaos into harmony with every case—a crusader in casual attire, championing the right of every child to a stable ground beneath their feet.

6. Children’s Book Author

Imagine being a children’s book author, a weaver of words where each sentence is a brushstroke on the imagination’s canvas. Where the turn of a page can mean laughter and lessons learned, sparking wonder in wide-eyed readers huddled under blankets.

7. Early Childhood Educator

Amidst a chorus of laughter and inquisitive voices, early childhood educators sculpt young minds with gentle hands, teaching children how to navigate the playgrounds of life with kindness, curiosity, and courage. Every ‘aha’ moment is your masterpiece in progress.

8. Youth Mentor

Youth mentors stand as a beacon of wisdom and support, illuminating paths for young travelers navigating life’s tricky waters. With each shared story and listened-to dream, you plant seeds of confidence and resilience that will one day flower into a forest of empowered adults.

9. Art Therapist

Picture the studio of an art therapist, a sanctuary where colors and emotions dance together. With each stroke of paint or molding of clay, children articulate their inner worlds, turning whispers of the soul into vivid masterpieces. It’s a space where healing is totally hands-on.

10. Special Education Teacher

In a special education teacher’s classroom, patience and creativity are the cornerstones, as each unique challenge is met with tailored triumphs. You celebrate the mastery of life’s subtler lessons, fostering independence, empathy, and joy in students who view the world differently.

In Conclusion…

As you stand on the cusp of choosing a path that joins your love for children with a fulfilling career, remember that each small step can lead to enormous change. The roles mentioned are more than jobs. They’re opportunities to inspire and be inspired daily. So why wait?

Your unique talents could be the very thing a child needs to thrive. Delve into the possibilities and join the ranks of those who find purpose in the bold dreams of our youngest generation.