Ungrateful Teen or Out of Touch Parents?

I'm with the kid on this one. Food is basic and not part of the "fun and fantastic" things my kids would want to spend cash on.

I mean, $200 for four days is $50/day. No likely to leave much, if anything, for the fun and fantastic part of the weekend if you are spending it on food first. 

That $200 would cover food but probably not fantastic fun.

It's impossible to know without having some idea of where she's traveling. $50 a day for food could be plenty or not enough depending on where you're at. I mean even fast casual places are easily $15 a meal in the US. Now if she's traveling to a very inexpensive place, or some meals are included it's a different story.

Gotta side with the teen on this one.

I saw this on TT and honestly, I assumed it was a bait post trying to get people to comment and didn't take her seriously. IMHO $200 is not enough for food AND 'fantastic fun' in most places.

Why didn’t they discuss spending money before she left?

Yeah, I feel like there should have been more clear guidelines of what they expected - and what the daughter could or could not use the credit card for. 

I read that after I posted and edited my response.

I’m going to be the outlier here and say $200 is plenty of spending money for four days considering the kid is going with friends (and assuming someone’s parents who are probably paying for some of the activities, gas, lodging, whatever since it was a birthday trip for another kid and this kid is an invited guest).

Maybe I’m wrong or way too generous, but if I’m inviting my kid’s friend(s) to do anything, I am doing so with the expectation that I’m paying for said kid(s) in addition to my own family. That’s what an invitation IS. For something like this birthday weekend, I would anticipate paying for all of that guest kid’s meals, lodging, entrance to whatever activities we’ve planned, etc. so any money that kid was bringing along would only be for their personal spending money or incidentals.

My kid would absolutely budget that money if she knew it was supposed to be for food, possibly a souvenir or whatever incidentals she might need. If it was for a birthday party, she would also be bringing a gift for the birthday kid that was purchased in advance. She’s cheap like me when it comes to paying for food like that so she would probably be ordering off the dollar/ value menu and drinking water to get the biggest bang for her buck so she could spend more of her money on a better souvenir.

ETA: Who invites other people’s kids to a birthday party and expects the guest kids to pay their own way? This is why since my kid was old enough to decide what she wanted to do for her birthday she was given the choice of having a bigger venue type party with a bunch of friends and a smaller gift from us (since the $$$ party IS part of the birthday budget), or a smaller less expensive home based party and a much nicer gift. Ever since she was about nine, she has always chosen to have a smaller party and a better gift.

When I first watched the video yesterday my thoughts were $200 is a nice amount of money…….then I saw other people reply about the food costs and it got me thinking.  After reading the replies Im with the majority of people on TT saying that it isn't enough money to cover everything.


Honestly, I was thinking she would be with parents who would pay for the meals……if we take our teenage son’s friends with us we cover food and hotel. I just didn't take it as she was responsible for all of the trip.

I think there is-was a lack of communication and expectations, in regards to the money.

$200 doesn't go far for four days worth of food and fun money. That is $50 a day for food and fun...that is unrealistic.
If the teenager was expected to pay cash for everything, they should have been given more cash or the funds transferred to their teen debit account, if they have one.

I also think....the childhood, tween and teenage years....are when the Parents should be teaching them about money, finances, and budgeting.

Sounds like they should have communicated their expectations better to the teen. $200 for four days is not enough to have a "fantastic fun time" in most places someone go on a trip. If you're going camping sure. But admission to parks, museums, zoos, and other attractions would eat up basically all of that in no time OR it could be used to pay for food. I highly doubt it would be enough to cover all of her expenses. I'm thinking the parents thought they were just supplying fun money and the teen thought they were paying for the entire trip. No one is in the wrong, they are just poor communicators.

Watching the video again and the daughter said the credit card was for food, because you (the parent) pay for food. So it sounds like the daughter expected necessities to come off the credit card and the cash was for strictly fun stuff. That seems to be part of the miscommunication going on here.

My kid has a credit card attached via Apple Pay to her phone. She’s 13. If it were me, I’d give her $100 cash and tell her to charge the meals. She can text me and ask about whatever else she needs/wants- theme park admission, uber, whatever. It’s all about communication. When she’s out with friends I tell her that food “is on me” as long as it’s just her and not her plus all her friends and it’s not Starbucks. So far so good.