Port Louis — "Money is a great servant but a terrible master", is a notion that should be taught from childhood. Yet many of us make irrational expenses aimed at satisfying our wards' whims and desires. Besides, they are provided with regular pocket money .This "income" is often taken for granted because we fear that querying the way they use it or guiding them accordingly might end up frustrating them.

However it is of the utmost importance for children to learn that money is usually hard earned, that no one will give it to them for free or that they will never be able to pluck it from a tree.

Besides generosity, discipline and responsibility are required concepts that make a good servant out of money. What's wrong in asking one's child how he uses his pocket money from time to time ? Is it not desirable to warn him about the many hazardous temptations money can buy ?

Money confers liberty and, in today's context where unwarranted supply outweighs demand by tenfold, autonomy needs more than ever to be accompanied by responsibility.

That is why parents and educators have the duty to teach children to rightly weigh the value of money and not turn this powerful weapon against themselves by squandering it upon alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, unwarranted outings and pornography to mention but a few dangers.