My son who is 11 years old got quite a bit of money for Christmas from relatives and close friends. His uncle gave him $250.00, a neighbour gave him $ 40.00, his grandfather gave him a present and then another $100.00 and he got a $25.00 gift certificate for a toy store. So total is $ 390.00 plus the gift certificate. My husband and I feel this is a lot of money for an 11 year old child to have. My son is excited to go and buy some things. My hubby feels that he should put all of it except $ 90.00 and the 25.00 gift certificate in the bank. That is a total of $ 115.00. Which is still quite a lot. My son wants to put $200.00 in the bank and have the $ 190.00 plus $ 25.00 to spend. I am not sure what would be a good thing. My husband does not feel comfortable with him having so much money. He says that when he was growing up, if he ever got any money it went into the bank. My husband is very responsible when it comes to money. I, never really got money, and I am not really comfortable with it. So, I don't know what to suggest. My son wants to buy Magic cards. He already got some for Christmas, and it just seems like such a waste of money to me to spend money on more cards. Part of me thinks, let him have the $200.00 and spend it the way he wants within reason and hopefully learn how to eventually be responsible with money. Or maybe that is a mistake, and will just fuel the jets of consumerism. I remember reading in one of Barbra Colorosa's books about doing a 1/3 split with money. 1/3 charity, 1/3 bank and 1/3 spend. I have mentioned this before, but my son is not really interested in giving to any charity. ( and that is something i don't want to enforce, as \i want him to give from wanting to). I do know he wants to buy a friend who does not celebrate Chrisstmas, a nerf gun with some of the money. Sorry for going on and on. I am also very aware that this can come across as so superficial, when I know Christmas can be so hard for so many. And here i am worrying about what to do with my son's Christmas money. I work as a youth worker for homeless kids, so having this situation does make me feel really uncomfortable. It is my son, though, and I do want to try and do the most caring thing, but also responsible. This makes me just feel so uncomfortable. I am wondering what others would do.