Do you discuss your salary with your kids?

A small study showing that teens worry about their family's finances has got me thinking. As a kid, I didn't worry about my family's finances much mostly because I didn't know anything about them. Once in a while we had to tighten our belts, but other than that, things like salaries, investments, pensions, even monthly budgets were the stuff of conversations between my parents, not dinner-time talk with us kids.

My husband and I do talk about many of those things with our children. We also talk about for whom we voted, our career plans, how we balance work and family life, what we dream of for our future and how we make decisions. We ask our children's opinions on many of those things.

There's a growing body of evidence that children drive many family decisions, especially how money is spent. There's also concern that, whether from a lack of time or backbone, parents are abdicating their authority and responsibility to their kids.

Those are certainly dangers and ultimately harmful to children. But I believe the move towards more open discussion within families is a good thing. Passing on our values means letting our kids know how we handle credit cards and resolve work concerns, not just telling them what we believe.

The better they see into how we make decisions and handle problems, the better prepared they will be to manage their own lives responsibly.