Children in Saudi Arabia need financial skills so that they can learn to become more focused on saving rather than consuming, a local academic said recently.

Majida Mohammed, an assistant professor in child rearing, said children must be taught how to lead balanced lives when it comes to their spending habits. “It is important to teach children how to consume products based on their needs,” Mohammed said.

She said that one negative effect of globalization was an increasing emphasis on possessions rather than moral values. This increasing consumption could lead to price increases for certain products that could be unhealthy for society. Rampant consumption also made people less independent, she said.

Mohammed said children are affected by the habits of other family members, whether it is shopping for clothes, food, toys, appliances, furniture or tools. “The next generation is expected to be more greedy consumers than the previous one. We need to find solutions to this problem,” she said.

Children must be taught to save their money and be content with what they have. Parents must be good role models and should buy their children moneyboxes, she said. She said the media should also play a role in educating the public about moderate ways to spend their money. In addition, they should also support locally made products, she said.