Family
For Your Kid to Really Succeed, They Need This
One essential parenting practice
As parents, we want to figure it all out when it comes to caring for our kids — and for the most part, we do. Despite our hectic lives and busy work schedules, studies show that parents today spend more time with their kids than they did 50 years ago. Our relentless efforts get us labeled as helicopter parents and tigers, but it’s all worth it at the end of the day because our kids are better off than generations before … aren’t they?
Well, it’s complicated. While our short-term efforts might be focused and supportive, it’s the long-term planning where we are falling short.
Parenting Truth #1: We’re overlooking an essential aspect of preparing our children for their future.
We work hard to ensure our children are healthy, stimulated, safe, and have a path to security in the future. But to effectively do this, we actually need to think past the here and now, and develop a parenting practice around planning for the unexpected. This means addressing the harsh realities of some worst-case scenarios like: “what happens if I’m not here to support them?”
Nobody likes to think about this, but a death in the family is not only emotionally devastating, it can also take a tremendous toll on the future of the financial security of a family. Paying the rent and basic living expenses or providing for a child’s education may become much more difficult, if not downright impossible.
Yet, statistics point to a growing ambivalence towards planning in this manner. In 1965, Americans purchased a collective 27 million life insurance policies. In 2016, with a population that was double in size, the number of life insurance policies was still only 27 million. This is simply not good — failing to set our families up for a future without us could have generational impacts for years to come.
Parenting Truth #2: We can do better.
While there’s no getting around the fact that it can be challenging, and expensive, to be a parent today, we can continue to evolve our parenting practices and better plan for the unexpected. After all, as parents, we’re just trying to help prepare our kids for their best future. Ensuring they are cared for if something should happen to us is a really good place to start.
How exactly do you get started? Many employers offer life insurance as a voluntary benefit you can enroll in to supplement your health and dental insurance. You can ask your HR contact today about any offerings they may provide, or click here to learn more about life insurance and get educated first.