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It is so easy to spoil our children because we love them so very much. But don't do it unless you can afford to spoil them their entire lives.

Often times parents in their most productive years take great pleasure in giving their children the best of everything. This too can be a measure of how successful the parents are and it really isn't about the child. Unfortunately, this trend can set up expectations in life that are not feasible later on. Kids don't automatically think that the endless supply of things and money will one day dry up and cease to exist. When it does, it is terribly painful.

I have seen devestating effects on children whose parents thought they were doing their kids a favor by providing everything from the latest technology to an abundance of cash. Somehow, they equate this with love, they think it will give the child advantages, or confidence but often times the opposite is true.

People feel good about the things they earn. They have pride in what they can accomplish. By handing things &/or money on a silver platter, the sense of accomplishment just isn't there. When times get tough, these kids have a rude awakening. As one young woman said, "I found out the hard way, life is no bed of roses!"

Too often, these are the things that sink a marriage. Few young people earn enough money to have it all immediately and the rough waters of providing for a family can seem insurmountable if everything had come too easily before.

Love your kids with your time. Love them by imparting what you know to them. Help when possible but remember, if you never let them learn to tie their shoes and you continued to do it for them, how would that really make them feel when they are on their own and have to do it? Isn't it better to teach them young and send them out into the world capable of doing it for themselves? Well, acquiring things is very much like that. Kids take care of what they pay for themselves.

Prepare your kids for what life may hand them and leave the spoiling out of it.