'Het eeuwige kostgeldprobleem'

Samenvatting

Board and Lodging: Financial Relations between Parents and Children. While children were an economic asset to their parents in most societies throughout history, they have become an economic burden in modern industrial societies. This article describes the change in economic relations between parents and their working children in the Netherlands over the last hundred years. Up to World War II, working-class children started earning money early in their teens. As a rule they gave all their earnings to their parents in exchange for some pocket money, although conflicts about ‘going on board’ instead of ‘giving in’ show that differences of interest between family members did exist. In the 1950s the system of ‘going on board’ expanded. Parents became more affluent and were less dependent on their children’s money for their standard of living. Children now refused to give in most of their earnings and wanted to pay board. Parents had to bargain about a proper amount for the family budget, but changing norms about the economic role of children made them reluctant to claim a substantial part of their children’s income. Nowadays, even about 25% of all the parents let their children keep all their earnings. Budgetary and other advisers, however, try to keep up the norm that children should contribute to the family income, if not for financial, then for pedagogic reasons.