Are you tired of your kids nagging you for an expensive toy that they keep on seeing on television or with their playmates? Are they the kind of kids who think money grows on trees and that they don’t really have to value it? It might prove to be very useful if they would learn that this is not true.

As a parent, there are many ways for us to keep our kids from weighing heavily in our pockets. We could strip away their credit card access altogether and banish them to a friend-less, phone-less, Internet-less Amish existence. Although, there is an alternative that wouldn’t end up with your kids hating you forever, and here are just a few of them.

You have to show your kids that money doesn’t fall magically from the skies, it is earned. If your kids are little, you can try giving them a couple of responsibilities around the house and then reward them for a job well done. If they’re a little bit older, you can ask them to find a job or start their own business, I hear West Virginia craft shows are a great way to do that.

Suggest that they should save some of their money. Tell them all about the benefits of opening up a bank account and how interest increases the money they have there. Or you can tell them to start a college fund right away, by saving a percentage of their earnings or allowance for, say, every week or month.

Teach them how to keep a budget. Better yet, plan a budget with them. Let them participate in the household budget with you and you can teach them all about the different expenses that they need to look out for. Of course, they wouldn’t need to worry about some of the things like mortgage yet, but you can teach them a thing or two about setting aside some money for different things in life.

It’s best to teach these things to our kids now, before they choke up our bank accounts with debt. Or you could just do away with their spending privileges, altogether. Whichever works.