Perhaps it's not surprising that a spending card for teenagers called Visa Buxx has been launched in the shopping-obsessed United States.
The reloadable payment card is "designed to help parents provide spending money for teens", and is marketed as a tool which will help teach young people practical money skills.
In true US devotee style, the British have followed suit and no doubt the impressionable Irish market won't be long behind.
Gone are the days when children barely received enough pocket money to buy sweets once a week. Now children become high spending discerning consumers at a very young age and they are immersed in a spending culture.
If you don't have the conviction to move your family to a subsistence farm on an island to avoid the relentless march of consumerism, there must be another way to bring up children with some money sense.
Many children have never had as much money as they do now and their spending habits and tastes are being watched by some of the world's largest corporations.
But if parents are going to be so generous with the allowances they give their children then they have a duty to teach the children how to be responsible with that money.
You can do this by letting your child hand over cash for groceries and then count the change with them. There are endless buying and selling games that can be played with toys and kitchen props at home.
Many young children think money from ATMs, laser cards and credit cards is free. When they can read, you could show them statements and remind them of the day when a particular purchase was made.
To teach slightly older children the purpose of writing cheques or how an ATM card works you could do the following exercise with them, although they may not like you for it.
Give them a sheet of paper with an amount written at the top of the page. This represents the balance in an account. Then write down four transactions that almost add up to the balance and show them how little money is left when the cheques come home to roost.
Another way of showing children good money habits is to open a savings account in their name and put money in regularly. They will get great satisfaction from having a savings book in their name, especially if the money keeps growing.
