Tonight with your 9 to 12 year old

The prompt

“If you got to make every rule about how you spend your own money, what would you change first?”

What to listen for

If they've got a detailed plan ready to go, they've been thinking about this a lot and want to feel trusted to make their own calls, they need a real say, not just pocket change with strings attached.

If they complain about a specific rule feeling unfair or pointless, listen for whether it's really about the money or about feeling like their judgment isn't respected yet.

If they shrug or say they don't care either way, that can mean they've stopped expecting their opinion to change anything, a good moment to ask a smaller follow-up like "what would you buy if it were totally up to you?"

What this tells you

How they talk about money rules is often really about how much control over their own life they feel they're allowed.