Top 3 Concerns of Parents
By: Randell Tiongson, RFP

If anyone claims that being a parent is easy, that person is either not a parent or is in denial. Don’t get me wrong, being a parent is one of the most fulfilling things that can ever happen to us.

The joys of parenthood can’t be explained by words, one must experience it to be able to understand how parents like me can feel blessed. Still, parenthood is no walk in the park. A few days ago, my friends and I were discussing our fears as parents and it was one energetic discussion, if I may say. There were many parenting issues we discussed, from letting our kids date, allowances, teachers, books and even canteen food. When we parents start talking about our kids, we can get to be very passionate.

We can get clueless when it comes to raising our kids. My pastor Dennis Sy even started blogging about his experiences and challenges as a dad which he aptly called Clueless Daddy (check out his blog site at http://cluelessdaddy.wordpress.com/). Another site I frequently read is the site of Paolo Punzalan at http://paolopunzalan.com/ as he also writes about his experiences raising four kids, among other things.
So what are the top concerns of parents? My friends and I had a long discussion and we had many concerns but we all agreed on our top three—academic excellence, formation of values and education funding.
One aspect directly deals with personal finance (education funding), the other deals with proper parenting (formation of values) and the other one can be deemed as a combination of both personal finance and parenting (academic excellence).

When discussing about academic excellence, we wondered how well our kids fare at school. Among some of the questions: Is the school teaching them enough? Are they being taught too much? Is what they are learning going to prepare them in the real world? Is today’s education good?

Parents with schoolchildren are so concerned about the education of their kids because they feel that how they perform in school will determine their success in life. Is it really? Well, the answer to that is definitely a relative one.

An equally big concern my friends and I talked about was values. We often wonder if our kids will have good values so they can live a morally upright life. Parents often fear issues relating to values such as teen pregnancy, rebellion, drugs, alcohol, smoking and so on. I often hear many parents complain about how wild the new generation is and how they have become “out of control.” Well, the older generation thought that our generation was wild back then, so I suppose this is a natural thing. Still, the issues on values of our kids are giving many parents sleepless nights.

Last, another big concern is paying for the schooling of our kids. It seems that now, more than ever, the educational budget of most families are ballooning with the ever-increasing cost of tuition and other education-related expenses. It is not only the tuition and other fees that are a concern for many parents. A big issue with parents is also the cost of tutors. Some kids have tutoring costs that are even greater than tuition costs! If the educational costs will eat up bulk of the family’s budget, quality of life will definitely be affected.

There are no magic solutions for these concerns, no tried-and-tested formula. However, we can learn from the experiences of others who went through similar concerns. In the end, we must take comfort that if we do our best to raise our children and with the Lord in the center of our family lives, we can be assured that we will be raising kids who will bring us immeasurable joy and vice-versa. “Children’s children are a crown to the aged, and parents are the pride of their children” (Proverbs 17:6, NIV).

Schooltalk.ph presents “Today’s Issues on Academic Excellence, Values Formation and Education Funding” with Francis Kong, Queena Chua Lee and yours truly. This is a free event and will be on August 15, from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Eastwood Cinema. If you are interested to attend this program, you will need to register by going to www.schooltalk.ph.

Randell Tiongson is a personal-finance coach and educator. He is a director of the Registered Financial Planner Institute (Philippines) and has over 20 years’ experience in the financial-services industry. He is also the cofounder of http://www.income-tacts.com/, the country’s premier personal-finance online community. For speaking engagements, training and consultancy, send an e-mail to randellt@gmail.com. To read his personal-finance blogs, visit http://www.randelltiongson.com/. The opinion and views expressed herein are solely those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of the Personal Finance Advisers Philippines Corp. or the Registered Financial Planner Institute.