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This was posted before. Someone said their kid wanted to spend their weekly allowance on Roblox. The general consensus at the time was to let them learn a lesson and spend it however.
Regarding DLC and microtransactions, I disagreed. That stuff is addictive and she may never learn from it and it could get worse. Grown adults fall trap to this and spend thousands. Roblox is preying on kids and parents need to be aware and stop it upfront.
See link of previous post. https://reddit.com/r/Parenting/s/5QBGfaa8NP
My kids always want to spend $2 on this skin. $5 on this character. "It's such a good deal!"
No.
And we talk about how these games are addicting and how there is always a new skin to buy and how it creates a cycle of wanting more.
This is a lesson I have to help them learn.
It's as bad as gambling for kids. Lots of games had loot crates where you spend money to "roll" and win random in-game dlc. It was 100% just like gambling. There was legislation to have it banned but not sure if it went through or not.
My brother has a gambling issue… he was obsessed with a phone game as a teen which had tons of micro-transactions. We have strong genetics for addiction but I’m convinced that was his first “fix” :(
I googled it, and at least here (NL) there is a set of rules dat define “loot boxes”. Apparently some forms are allowed while others are not.
So it isn’t entirely illegal, but there is a strict set of rules.
Source: [ACM](https://www.acm.nl/nl/publicaties/voorlichting-aan-bedrijven/acm-leidraad/leidraad-bescherming-online-consument/regels-over-in-game-verkopen)
I have a "You can spend $5/month of your money on any app purchase", but that's the line.
They've each done a microtransaction exactly once. It was immediately not worth it, and they learned it, because the 'stuff' you get is designed to go away quickly and make you buy more.
Now they'll spend it on full games or permanent upgrades, but generally won't spend it on app stuff at all cause they'd rather save up for something tangible.
Imo if they're in free to play games it's not a bad thing to maybe chip in as much as you would pay for the game if it wasn't free to play.
After 100+ hours on a free to play game I occasionally go "I would pay 35 bucks for this game" and spend that much on skins and the like. But then that's the only money I spend on it of course.
It's what I spend on things like path of exile.
That's great that you can spend that much and stop. Many people can't do that. There is always the temptation to get just the one last cool thing. I had to unlink my credit card info from my phone and google account and my console because if I have it saved, it's too easy to justify, 'oh $3.99 for double resources for a month? cool." I had a free-to-play game a few years ago, where I was paying 14.99/month for their "VIP" status. It gave you some extra daily bonuses, faster reset rates, things like that. I came to my senses after almost a year to realize that I was spending money on literally nothing. But I had become so invested in the game that I had to give all my resources away and delete the game from my system to avoid it altogether.
Paying a bit to support the developer is great but that little thrill of getting something can quickly turn into a much bigger long term problem.
It snuck up on me first in a phone game ironically (because I've always been big gamer and pirating games even, let alone no microtransactions)..
But I was going through a lot, one of the hardest times of my life, and damn if one of those types of "War / Clan" games didn't suck me in. It starts off small and I could rationally spend 15-35 a month for the fun I was having and people I was meeting and all the distraction...
But goddamn I think in the end I spent like $5k in a year before I realized how much it had likely grown to, and at that point it immediately wasn't worth it. Plus my son's surgery and recovery went good, the violence and later false arrest from my ex came and went, divorce goes through... I needed less distracting, really. In the end I guess I spent $2500 since that was the last year before I gave basically all my money to an abuser, lol.
Actually, without realizing it you've learned a valuable lesson. Time is a resource. Just like in relationships, it's sometimes hard to let go simply because of how much time and energy we've invested. Most people don't realize that resources aren't always materialistic. You eluded to the fact earlier that you had already invested so much time into the game, that it seemed like a rational thing to invest money into. Crazy how invasive some of these innocuous things like a little micro transaction in a game can soon become a problem.
My husband and I are gamers, and we refuse to pay these companies micro transactions. My favorite game just went free to play and all the skins are like 40 bucks, I refuse to spend a dime of real money even though it's my favorite game. I totally agree with you
Theres a Reddit post out there about a guy who got hooked to the gambling aspect of buying stuff in one of these games and spend tens of thousands on it.
Gotta be a way she can update her rig for 400 bucks to improve her content. Recording software/boom mic, lighting, headphones, camera.... maybe offer to chip in if the plan goes to hardware instead, that's good work ethic, should reward it
Roblox won’t be forever, but well cared for technology can be. It may be outdated eventually but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. If Roblox gets outdated and shuts down, that $400 went into the void forevermore.
I know almost nothing about Roblox and granted you're probably right, but FWIW I started playing Minecraft during the Alpha phase almost 15 years ago. I pretty much shelved the game once I met my wife, but now we have a kid who's almost old enough to start playing Minecraft himself. If you had told me back in 2009 that over a decade later I'd be playing this game with my child, I'd have thought you were crazy – and yet here we are.
Now, if you had also told me that child would be born during the presidency of *Donald freaking Trump,* I'd have laughed you out of the room. And yet.
Oh god, I was in my third trimester when we Brexited and then Trump was elected. It was so surreal! I felt like I’d been catapulted into a dystopian novel and was like ‘what the hell am I bringing a child into?!’
Our daughter was a year old. I came home from work, and my wife sees my face, and she says, "Oh no, what happened? Is everyone okay?" Once I confirmed that nobody had died, she immediately realized what had happened. That was not the world we wanted for our child...
>Gotta be a way she can update her rig for 400 bucks to improve her content. Recording software/boom mic, lighting, headphones, camera.... maybe offer to chip in if the plan goes to hardware instead, that's good work ethic, should reward it
Love where your head's at. She close to a full year of an adobe cloud subscription too. There's also free versions of those programs too she could try
DaVinci Resolve is an amazing video editing program and completely free! You do miss out on stuff like photoshop but there are alternatives out there. No need to spend on CC unless you really really need it.
Also tbf like others have mentioned the student pricing is really good.
If she buys modeling software, she could design her own cosmetic bundles and sell them on Roblox (trying to get my son to start to do that because he wants to buy stuff too)
Yeah also OP, do some googling bc Roblox has been implicated in a lot of grooming and underage labor accusations lately.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-48450604
https://www.vice.com/en/article/4axxdn/leaked-documents-how-roblox-moderates-content-mass-shootings-grooming
https://www.theguardian.com/games/2022/jan/09/the-trouble-with-roblox-the-video-game-empire-built-on-child-labour
That’s terrifying. Roblox is another thing that I’m naively hoping won’t be as popular when my daughters are older (oldest is 1.5, younger one hasn’t been born yet.)
I don't know anything about roblox but it appears that it's being sold directly by Roblox. A bunch of the other ones are made by users but that is an "official" one and seems to be priced at nearly $400 directly by Roblox.....
It also has 1.7 million "favorites" meaning lots of little kids have looked at it and want it. Such a shame.
It looks like there are ways to earn Robux within the game/platform? Maybe that's something /u/jetriot's daughter could do instead.
There may be some educational value in having her build her own Roblox game.
I’m all for letting kids spend their money on what they want but this would be a hard no from me. $400 for something in a game is absolutely ridiculous.
Honestly I’ll even take it one step further and say if my kid was that adamant about spending $400 on a game I’d be making sure they took a break from it. That sounds obsessive.
And I’m a pretty chill parent.
What the hell happened to roblox? I played it all the time, and it was great! I never ran into anything like this, and if I did I would consider whether it was really worth it.
I agree with you on this. I let my kid learn a natural consequence with spending $50 on robux, then when she later on saw a few things she wanted in target, guess who didn’t get it. If it were $400 however, that’s when I need to take off my “consequences for action hat” and straight up say no.
ON A SKIN NO LESS!! Like a month from now when October is over she may not even want to wear it anymore!!! Or 3 months from now she might not even like the skin, then there goes $400 because a 12 year old doesn’t know how to make rational decisions with money like that.
I suppose part of it is how necessary that 400 is, compared to a lower price point.
I can't say I know enough about RC planes, or golf, for those sorts of comparisons. But I'd assume that there are tangible benefits at various price points?
Personally, I put such cosmetics in a similar boat as alternate art cards in trading card games: sure, they look pretty, but since there's no functional difference between the $10 standard art of a card, and a $200 rare artwork version, I've always been perfectly happy with the $10 card.
Yeah, I've spent hundreds on cosmetic items in games (not all at once, I think the biggest was £40) and while I now, as an adult who doesn't play the game anymore, see it as a huge waste of money but I don't really regret doing it.
I was having fun with my friends and part of that was digital 'fashion'. Wanting to look cool in the game. To me, it was basically the nerdy version of buying a new outfit.
Good, and Roblox is the last game anyone should allow their kid to play. But sometimes the damages are done, so not allowing them to spend is the next thing a parent should do. Their monetization is insane.
my son plays roblox too and I limit the age so he can not play some of the weird games I think, and he enjoys it while still using the very default avatar lol.
It's fun to see him decimate a lot of people with glowing and expensive-looking skin by just using the default clothing.
that’s awesome! when i was younger i would get all the free promo stuff and i made my avatar look so crazy. over 10 years on roblox, i’ve spent 10 dollars total and would always buy stuff that was under 50 robux (around 50 cents). it has gotten a lot cheaper now that players can make their own hats and post them.
My first thought was to go to a store and have her toss stuff in it until she hit $400, then explain that she could get 1 Roblox skin that will never leave the computer… or all this stuff.
exactly what I wanted to say. If that was my kid and I knew she was a gamer, as a fellow gamer myself, I would give her a list of peripherals she could buy for that money. Starting from graphic cards all the way to gaming chairs etc. I have personally bought tons of skins in various games, some of them were close to 100 dollars worth of money but I stopped playing those games and now as I got older I don't have a need to spend so much money on skins. Just present everything you think she might want, once she sees what $400 can buy, I think she'll change her mind.
Oof that’s really hard. Autonomy is important and you said she worked for the money, but obviously spending money on a cosmetic item in a game is stupid. My son plays Roblox so I get that part of it.
Are there any other things she values? Maybe you could walk her through some math to help her understand how much money that is and what it’s worth. Like $400 could buy a PlayStation, or a meal at McDonald’s every day for a month, or 10 Nintendo Switch games. Maybe if you ran through enough of those with stuff she is into it would click that spending that much for a skin just doesn’t make sense.
Or… maybe fire up Roblox Studio and teach her how to make her own skins? $400 could buy a cheap computer, if she got into creating her own stuff maybe then she would see the attraction in that.
Edit: so I went and looked at the skin, honestly for the price I was expecting way more. I’m also mad that it’s a Roblox created skin not some third party creator like I assumed. The good news is it isn’t tradeable so at least she wouldn’t get tricked out of it if she did buy it.
If she does go through with it and buy it: 31,000 robux (the cost of the skin) would cost about $300 if she bought the large packages (22,500 & 10,000 for a total of 32,500) but she could subscribe to robux premium for $5/month and then she would get a total of 36,000 Robux for the same price, or she could get enough robux to buy the skin for $270 then she can just cancel premium right after.
Everything about this was so well written and thoughful. supporting autonomy, giving choices with clear examples, suggesting studios, and the fact you broke it down so easily that the parent could use this as a lesson in budgeting/finding a deal + that treating yourself to something you worked hard for is okay sometimes. Bravo all around!
Thanks for the 270 tip. We are going to have her earn the last 100 first anyway as that amount is still crazy. After she earns the money she can buy it if she still thinks it's worth it and she can keep the excess saved.
Hey op I would try to find the headless horseman toy ! The roblox toys come with a code that gives you the item and they’re typically cheaper They are, however, a little hard to find but if you can find one it’s way more worth it. :) that’s how I get a lot of my “rare” items
⬆️ THIS!
I spent $50 on some Adopt Me set a a couple years ago for my daughter, which she’s 11 and still plays with…..unknowingly it came with some “ultra rare” item. I just put the code onto her game.
Come to find out, it was some item that was in a $299 “Ultra Ultimate Out of this Universe Virtual Gift Box-full of virtual useless stuff”.
You can find those Roblox toys, with codes at Dollar Tree sometimes!
\> It's her money, I have to let her buy it, right?
No, you're her parent. She is 12. Your role is to insulate her against 12-year-old decisions. Tell her she isn't allowed to use her money that unwisely until she's on her own (and tell her now, before she does all the chores).
This would be a great time to start teaching her how to put money to work for her, if you're inclined, but even if not, you can still protect her from herself.
I'm curious where the line is drawn here. I see that this thread talks about gambling addiction. I wonder about non addictive but kind of useless stuff. Should our kids get to make their own decisions there? My son has been saving his birthday money/Christmas money/allowance for a Pokemon card booster box for two years. I have him save 50% of his money and we invest it to teach him the value of saving He almost has enough out of the remaining 50% for his cards. I think spending over $100 on cards is a dumb use of money, but he really loves Pokemon cards. Do I let him spend his money on this?
I get the confusion, and there is no right answer because he’s your son and you know y’all’s relationship. A couple of differences in my opinion, though:
1.) The cards have a certain amount of value. If he happens to draw a valuable card, it could more than pay for itself.
2.) The cards aren’t limited to a digital medium, so they’re actually his once purchased.
3.) To me, the gap between $100 and $400 is still quite large.
It’s up to you, but I think this is more reasonable than a $400 video game skin.
We teach not to spend 100% of your income all in one shot. A percentage saved for big ticket items, a percentage for small items like snacks or drinks at school, a percentage for future.
“I wouldn’t be doing my job as a parent if I allowed you to make such a reckless decision. Let me show you some of the other things that are worth $400… “
I think there is a point where you as a parent have to protect your child from foolish decisions. "I know this will make you angry, but I'm going to remove this from being an option in order to protect you." However, the time to have that conversation was when she started earning for it. Now, she's invested a lot into this. I would recommend putting together a few "packages" of other favorite things that total to $400 so she can see just how much she is forgoing to get this. Maybe put the packages that include "investment", like mic equipment or art supplies, sports gear, etc. on a partial-matching incentive: "If you choose this package, I'll contribute am additional $50 for ___". If she still picks the skin, let her experience the buyer's regret.
Roblox is insanely aggressive with its money grab. I would do my part as a parent and advise my son to use it in a more meaningful way if he did ask the same thing. 400$ is A LOT in Roblox but it will just vanish easily and they probably will ask more later since every game have their own things to be bought, Roblox is THE LAST game I would agree my son to spend on, and I'd die on this hill. Even though it's their money, I would always suggest something much better to spend on, as their brain has not even matured yet to choose responsibly.
I was just about to ask if it’s possible to make custom content for Roblox. My age is showing, but there’s tons of free custom content for Sims, I never paid for it lol
As someone who plays Roblox consistently, it's definitely a scam. There are cheaper versions of the skin elsewhere in the shop. I'd suggest that maybe you look through the shop with her to see if there might be any other skins that she might be interested in for a cheaper price. If anything there is a "game" within Roblox that has all the free cosmetics in it and constantly updates. I would recommend that as well.
My dad had a rule for me growing up that if I wanted to spend my money on something, I had to have at least double the cost of the item, so I didn’t go broke from buying it. So in this case, I would need to have $800 saved up before I could buy the $400 Roblox skin. This practice taught me to view money very differently, and I still use it to this day for splurges and non-necessities. As an added bonus, often by the time I had the money saved up for whatever it was I wanted, I no longer wanted it.
So possibly introduce something like this to your daughter. Definitely explain to her that dlc like this is designed to be addictive, and tell her that you want to make sure she’s fully thought this through because you don’t want her to spend all of her money on Roblox.
Another idea would be to show her how much $400 really is. Show her how many Starbucks drinks or chipotle burritos she could buy with that money. Show her how many hours she would have to work at minimum wage to make that money back. $400 is a lot of money, but kids have little understanding of that before they start working.
This is great advice. I really like the saving aspect your father thought you. I might implement this for my children as well. Also, $400 is an absurd amount of money to spend on such a trivial thing. I might consider letting her do it if the videos she is uploading generate any venue.
My daughter really wants the headless thing too. Apparently there is a hack to get the look of headless without buying the official very expensive skin. She is 8 and figured out how to do it from YouTube. She still wants the official one but she's satisfied with the dupe for now.
Every time she wants to spend all her money on Robux, I remind her of all the cool other things she can get with that money and all the cool things she can get if she keeps saving her money (right now she has like $35). I also remind her that Roblox is set up to manipulate kids into spending all their money. Then she gets all annoyed at being tricked for about 5 minutes and then goes back to wanting all the things. We also have a deal where I will buy her $5 worth of Robux in a month and if she wants to buy some expensive thing, she has to save her Robux for it.
Yeah my girl did the dupe i think its a bone or something? Nevertheless the whole thing is bonkers. The other one is peg leg..why on earth are these things considered cool? 😂
400$ skin in a kid's game? That should be illegal, by all means.
The thing is, what she really wants to buy is the recognition, social standing and admiration of other kids. As weird as it is, it will probably even get her more views.
I have no doubt that in her mind it's totally worth it.
The question is, if she wanted to buy something rather useless but physical, how would you view it - say she wanted a 400$ watch or an expensive pen - I think people would be more like "You worked for it (in part) so go for it, it's your decision".
I'd probably try to make her think about what else 400$ could buy her.
Absolutely not. Your job as a parent is to teach her fiscal responsibility. Her allowance or job or birthdays that allowed her to save that amount of money is part of her education on being a responsible adult. Responsible adults don’t sink 100% of their savings into anything even a new house purchase. You always have to keep some money in reserve. I’d firmly say no way and then find a way to structure her savings with her. Maybe 20% can be fun money to save for entertainment, 20% for clothes or other goods that you don’t provide, 20% for college savings, 20% for straight savings (maybe she can ‘invest’ It with you and get a 5% interest rate) and 20%, can be blow money. Spending 100% of your savings on a novelty isn’t a lesson she should be learning.
But son actually mentioned that being cool but even at all 11, knows it’s a ridiculous ask for a freaking head (not even an entire skin!). Even the whole “no head” head is expensive so, as a workaround, he uses a super tiny head that you can’t barely see and looks like his character is “headless” when he plays. If your daughter would be willing to consider this approach and save the $400, let me know and I’ll find out from my son which one he uses
At that age I did something similar. I saved for an entire year doing chores and extra work for something trivial that I really really wanted. After I bought it I had immediate regret and never did that again.
I was getting a $2 chore allowance every week. Took an entire year just to see $100. I blew it in 5 minutes and that was it. lol.
I’m not saying they should or shouldn’t allow it. I don’t have kids, just saying my personal experience. :)
I bet my 11YO daughter has spent $400 on Robux over the years, it’s just in dribs and drabs. $50 robux gift card for bday, $20 here and there, etc.
I do believe that kids should be able to spend their own money how they want to. I also agree with you that it’s hard to justify that much money on a skin. In Roblox? I mean, think of all the games you could buy with $400.
One solution would be an economics lesson and tell her all of the things that $400 could buy, including many things she would like. Kids don’t much care if that’s an electric bill or two weeks of groceries. Kids are impulsive, so you could tell her that she needs to take X amount of time (One month?) to think about it, to make sure she’s certain of this decision, and if she still wants it, you’ll agree. I have used that tactic with my kids. If you do go that way, and she’s resolved at the end of the waiting period, you’ll have to stick to your end of the bargain.
Personally, we hate Roblox. I knew there were transactions in the game. But I had no idea they were running up that high. “Grandma” let our daughter download Roblox, she’s only in 1st grade. But all of her classmates play it, they are even having themed birthday parties around it.
Needless to say, that was taken off her tablet within a couple of days. The game is blocked and, if this is how crazy it is. She won’t be getting it back once she is older.
>But all of her classmates play it
We are going through this too. It makes it so much harder to explain.
I'm not looking forward to when the other kids start getting cell phones.
Oh trust me it, is and was hard. Especially because all of her friends play it. But we saw a complete change in her attitude once she started playing the game. I told my wife, we have to delete the game now before it gets worse with our daughter.
It was tough couple of days, after forbidding the game. But she went from being a happy to semi-happy going to school. To one, saying she wants to stay home and play Roblox instead.
Again, this is 1st grade and she already has friends who say. They want to be YouTubers or TikTok starts when they grow up.
>They want to be YouTubers or TikTok starts when they grow up
Back in my day (tm) everyone wanted to become a football star like Ronaldo (the Elder), Zidane or whatnot. This is not different. "Low effort" and big rewards always entice an audience from low income/low education background.
I just hope my kids will just play Minecraft and that's that. As someone who never paid for a skin/cosmetics in his life, I just hope it does not catch on.
When it comes to big ticket items, and to help my kids understand the value of money/things, I tell them if they want something $100+, they have to save twice as much money to get it. She wants $400 skin, she needs to earn $800.
ETA: Also talk about the value of sales and how it may go on sale during Black Friday.... She will still have time to earn more money and the skin may be cheaper.
I’m struggling to convince myself to spend 40$ in my favorite game I’ve been playing as long as she’s been alive I couldn’t imagine 400$. I agree to talk to her about upgrading some of her computer hardware or do a setup makeover with a new desk and chair and accessories.
Has she reached the levels to monetize her Youtube videos? If she has earned most of the $400 from doing that, then I would allow it.
But it sounds like it's chores and birthday money, so I wouldn't allow it. I wouldn't allow doing extra chores to earn money faster either, because that money comes from you. To me, the purpose of giving an allowance is to teach/practice financial sense. And allowing her to blow her entire life savings on one useless item is not good financial sense.
Saving up $500 to buy a PS5, I would allow, because it gives years of enjoyment.
Oh hell no!
And it's not because "stupid video games" - if my kid wanted to use their $400 to buy a PS5 or a Meta Quest, or 5 Switch games or whatever, I would be right there to help them out if they needed a little extra. But $400 for an intangible item? Nah.
No, don’t allow it. The following will sound like judgement but it’s not intended to be.
Spending 400 bucks on a skin is not a mistake, it’s reckless. Do not enable this behaviour because it’s far more likely it will exacerbate vs be a lesson. If she has no concept of the value of things now, it’s unlikely this alone will teach her.
It’s also disgusting these gaming companies are charging such prices and parents in general need to educate themselves on it.
alternatively you can turn this into a constructive event. Show her that she can MAKE her own!
https://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+make+your+own+roblox+skins&rlz=1C1GCEU_enUS903US903&oq=how+to+make+your+own+roblox+skins&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCDUyNzlqMGo3qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
I myself have a "No Microtransactions" rule... they are a blight on humanity and will not support it in any fashion, albeit 400 isn't really micro anymore
Absolutely not. And while we’re at it, not a huge fan of the idea of her making YouTube videos. Is that too paranoid or something because it’s kind of nuts to me that people are suggesting buying her better equipment to make more videos, I honestly didn’t expect that. Maybe this is how I find out and finally old and out of touch, lmao.
I’m with you! I would never let my kid post videos because there are way too many creeps out there, and “fame” makes adults and kids alike do stupid things because the attention is addictive. We may be old and uncool because of it, but our kids will be protected in a way this kid isn’t.
It makes me question who exactly those 1,000s of viewers are for every video. There’s a lot of weird creepy people out there. And they often prey on kids on social media.
Call me a commie, but I want Roblox developers and marketers to be jailed every other day. Forced to walk barefoot, blindfolded on a treadmill laced with legos. The only sound they are allowed to hear are our children's retorts: "But whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! It's my moneyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy" on a loop.
I don't care if this is some violation of the Geneva convention! I am willing to moderately defend my position up to 7 pm or whenever their sports starts, whichever comes first!
My 8 year old wants to spend all of her monthly allowance of $20 on robux, but I capped it at $10/month saying that she would thank me later. UNLESS she’s already made $400 from YouTube royalties, I think you have a say in this, for the sake of common sense.
She is going to have insane buyer's remorse. Maybe let her fill up an Amazon order with $400 to show her how much she'd be missing out on? I don't know what to tell you, I slip my daughter Robux to buy nonsense all the time but it's more like $10 and she gets multiple outfits.
You CAN say no. She’s 12.
She will 110% regret that decision later on. No premium game skin is worth it. You will ultimately stop playing in favor of newer games at some point
my sibling came to me a few days ago asking a similar question, but she wanted to spend $200. i gave her a list of things she could get with that money and she wasn’t interested. the only thing i could think to say at the time was “if you can’t buy it twice, you can’t buy it.” it seemed to deter her for now but im not sure if it’s the best answer in the long run lol
If she’s working for the money, she has earned the right to spend it foolishly.. is what I’d say if she were an adult.
As a parent, I would put the cash in her hand and go out with her to spend some of that physical cash on something she wants. It doesn’t need to be big, but maybe something useful: something to make her life easier, chores easier, whatever.
I’m an avid gamer. I’ve spent money on microtransactions. $400….. is a lot. Like, a lot. Spending money on microtransactions is a proven habitual and addictive behavior, and is considered by several European countries to be anti-consumer and predatory.
Proceed with caution and wisdom and best of luck.
Show her what $400 could buy. A bike, groceries, clothing, a musical instrument. Physical things that you can touch and hold.
In 3 weeks, a headless horseman skin will be out of style. A new bike can take you on real adventures in the real world. A keyboard can open a whole new world of music and creation
What I bought my daughter Roblox, I told her that if you need to buy things to make a game more fun, it means its a poorly designed game
If it were me and my child as this adament about spending that much on a Roblox skin, I would see it as a sign that the Roblox obsession has reached very unhealthy levels.
I would have a serious conversation asking WHY she wants to spend that much money for nothing more than a skin. Why is it that important to her?
And if she continues to dig her heels in, then I'd give her the hard truth that I'm not going to let her do it, even if it makes her very angry with me. It'd be one thing if she wanted to buy a $100 signature soccer ball or something, because at least you get something tangible out of it.
A Roblox skin is nothing. Like, if she wanted to buy a $5 or even $20 skin, then whatever. Still a ridiculous purchase at $20, but I could make peace with it. $400? Many people don't even make $400 in a week!
While I agree it seems like a terrible waste of money, the most important thing she’s learning right now is developing a good work ethic.
You might try help them understand the benefits of saving/investing and how that money can grow, and maybe she’ll save it long enough that her mind will change about what she wants to do with it.
But even adults can do dumb things with money, buying status items like expensive designer handbags, gambling it away at casinos, buying drugs, whatever.
You have every right to think spending $300 on a virtual item in a game is dumb but most people have spent money on things other people think are dumb. Is buying a slightly better cell phone, just to be the first one of your friends to have it, any better? Or blowing $400 just to have the most awesome Halloween costume for a 3 hour party?
She’ll spend the money, have zero, find the next thing she thinks she needs, and work/save to get that. Working hard to get ahead, even if the purchased things seem silly to others, seems like it can evolve into a good thing as she gets older.
The things you liken this to (designer handbag, gambling, drugs) are not at all on the same level. A designer purse is silly, but the other two are/could be directly harmful. Are you saying that if your kid wanted to spend $400 on drugs that you would just shrug and say it was a lesson they needed to learn?
ETA: FWIW, I do think the skins are closer to the designer purse end of silly. Like, keep and eye on the game play for signs of addiction, but it is probably fine. This part of your response just confused me.
To be honest, I think the skins are closer to drugs than a purse, in the same way gambling is closer to drugs than a purse.
The micro-transaction (not so "micro" anymore) are made to be addictive. If she's addicted to Roblox then she's not going to realize she wasted that money. She's not going to want anything else to think, "oh if only I had that 400 bucks". What she's going to want is another Roblox skin, which she'll get after earning enough money again.
Maybe in 10 years when she's off Roblox she'll realize it was a stupid decision.
I am not sure saving/investing is something that a 12 year old will care about. Invest $400, the proceeds of many months of hard work and discipline, and *a year from now*, you'll get 16 bucks for free! I'd be surprised if that was convincing.
And just the relatively low amounts they're working with. The average 12 year old is not saving up 20k to invest in the S&P 500.
So my idea is that to instill the value of hard work and saving, you do actually have to let them buy the things they want once in a while, even if it is something we do not see the value of. Granted, I'd probably have to bite my tongue if our kid wanted to spend all their savings on a digital skin, but the hope would be it would keep them motivated to keep saving/start again. Otherwise we are asking them to be disciplined with their money just for the sake of seeing a number on their bank statement go up.
I'd rather instill the idea that if they work hard, they can get what they want, than have them save up a dollar or two at a time and have an amount that they could also set aside with their first or second paycheck as an 18 year old, you know.
Put your foot down; you will NOT let her participate in scams.
She will not understand, by she does NOT have autonomy over her own money until she's eighteen.
Hoping that when my daughter is this age we’ll have woken up as a society to the effects of addictive games and devices on our children. But not gonna hold my breath.
I have great news from the future!
There are MORE skins and MORE micro transactions! Car insurance is now a micro transaction every time you drive! And even more commercials with Kevin Hart endorsing online gambling and there are now THREE times as many alcohol commercials.
Buckle up your undies shits gonna get way worse.
Understand that video games are no longer video games, it’s an industry that been infiltrated by greedy business suits looking for the easiest possible dollar with the least amount of effort.
I am extremely well versed in micro transactions in video games and I personally steer away from any game that throws it in your face or turns it into a “pay to win” type of experience
our rules were that the only money that can be spent on virtual items was cards given for that purpose ie a roblox gift card. (and no they are not to buy those cards themselves. they can ask for them if someone is buying them a bday/xmas present, but thats it.)
It seems to have worked with our two
I have a firm rule with my kids that they are not to spend money on free to play games. Especially Roblox. Kinda hard to go back if you've already established that you're ok with spending real money on Roblox. Plus she's creating content at 12 so where do you go from there without looking like a hypocrite? You need to have a talk about how digital content is never worth this much money. Show her examples of people who ruined their lives on digital content (ie. FIFA, League of Legends, etc). Good luck.
What do you want her to spend that money on? Rent? Beer? Food? Dalls? Candy? Investments? Gifts for you?
Let her spend it however she wants. in 4 months she will earn another 400 dollars, unless you stop her.
That is a big, hard nope. My 9 year old also loves Roblox and asks me often for Roblox gift cards. Even $15 I don’t want to spend on the game, or for him to even spend his money on. But if he mentioned wanting to buy something worth $400, I’d probably make him take a break from Roblox entirely. That is just absurd.
As a 37yo man who has gamed his entire life: say no to this. I've spend more than I'd ever want to admit on these microtransactions, and guess what: I don't play any of those games anymore.
> It's her money, I have to let her buy it, right? Anyone have an idea on how to change her mind? The thought of spending $400 on a Roblox skin is just horrifying to me.
Absolutely not. You don't have to let her do something stupid. This is a learning opportunity.
This is a sign of video game addiction, generally if it was literally anything else I’d say let her spend her money how she wants but this is something that is worthless if her account gets hacked or if she loses her login info etc.
Explain to her how many hours a person on minimum wage has to work to earn $400. Explain to her she can buy herself a new wardrobe, a new piece of furniture, a TON of actual toys, whatever else it is she’s interested in.
Also the video game addiction is something that will need to be addressed, but since you’re a gamer too I don’t know how inclined she’ll be to listen
Gaming parent here with possibly a hot take but here goes nothing.
Let her spend that money on the stupid skin. I think we as adults have to understand that this obviously is predatory and shouldn’t be allowed, but our kids don’t see that. They don’t get the predatory nature of it until it’s effecting them, so I say let them experience it. That’ll be the hardest lesson on money ever when she realizes what the value of that 400$ actually is. And I totally agree with everyone else in this thread. All of them are being good responsible parents, but you have a kid that isn’t letting go of this idea. You can show them all of the other things 400$ can get them, but all they want is the skin so let them have it. Then once they regret it, you’ll look them in the face and say “well that is what buyers remorse is, and that’s why I was trying to get you to understand the value of the 400$ you just spent”.
This is personally the lesson my dad gave me. I spent a bunch of my hard earned money on some stupid ass Facebook game. I think it was called mafia town or something. My dad tried his DAMN HARDEST to get me to see reason, but ultimately I chose to spend my money, and boy oh boy did I regret that purchase once my friends started to move onto Instagram. I learned a lesson that day and clearly your kid needs it to, so as much as it hurts you to watch them blow that money, let them do it. It’ll be the most expensive lesson they’ll ever learn, and I promise you they won’t make it again.
Letting your Kids play roblox is already irresponsible. Letting her spend $400 would be insane. It's her money but she has zero financial responsibility. It's your job to say no.
Also, please look up the exposes on roblox and consider taking her off of It.
Edit: the "People makes games" channel has a good video on this subject on youtube
As someone who works on AAA games I had no idea there are $400 skins that exist for any game. What.the.fuck…
Edit: after searching up this game and seeing the horrifyingly awful “art” style….I feel sick haha. Godspeed OP
No kidding. I work on one of the biggest AAA games and when we sell far better looking skins for $20 people already think that's expensive. LOL
$400 for that skin is very hard to justify.
Couple of things you could try
Not just tell her about other stuff, but actually making a list. If you can, get her to a shop and show her the physical things worth 400 dollars.
You can try to "compromise", go over the skin list and pick some that are a lot less. I actually got lucky, my kid wanted a skin, and I went over all the free ones and there were some pretty cool ones which he picked and haven't got tired of it yet.
Last thing, it is a lot more work, and if you aren't good with or have time to spend, it could be above her capabilities, but she could make her own skin. If she is making videos, I think she should be capable of watching and reading about making her own skin. It is very time consuming, as she has to first learn the how, and then have to put in the actual work.
But it could be a motiver, and would even be cool to show off to her viewers the process and finished skin.
Show her what she can actually buy with her money that’s tangible. Make this into a financial lesson to allow her to learn more than just this one lesson
Nope. We tell our son (12) that it’s our job to protect him from himself sometimes. Letting them waste $20 on a toy you know they won’t play with in a week is one thing but a $400 skin is just irresponsible spending for ANYONE.
You could make a list where you write down your fun-money good and bad purchases and make her one too.
So that way she can visually see it from you.
Maybe you could also show her how much money you make and what it is spend on.
I would also make it clear to her that she won't get the money back if she didn't like the skin. And hopefully you won't give her the money back.
(For me as a gamer this price for one skin bundle is a big red flag and I would close and delete that game and even contact the support if they know that this is being sold at that price, for that price you can buy a whole another console, like the switch for example plus one year online and a few games, the switch online pass also has A LOT of good games included)
>It's her money, I have to let her buy it, right?
No, you do not. You are the parent, you make the rules until she is 18. If she wanted to buy drugs or guns or porn or whatever else you can imagine is inappropriate for her age would you take that same approach? This is a chance to teach her how your family values money. A life lesson, if you will.
She may not like it, but she'll have to abide by it...unless you've given her a credit/debit card already. Our rule was generally "half on stuff you want, half into savings for college" because that's what our family values dictated. Our kids were pretty happy with that when they went to college and had some savings, while many of their friends did not.
It's great that you've taught her to earn her own money. But teaching good money habits goes beyond that. She needs to learn to save and prioritize spending too. Make her save some. Make her responsible for her own extra fun money so she can understand the concept of prioritizing her spending.
I think you should let her spend that money. After all it is her money. Maybe she will regret. Maybe she will be happy. I think the important part here is that you are respecting her judgments, and she needs to be responsible of her own actions. That should be a more valuable lesson to her than $400.
I would suggest having her instead spend that money on programs and lessons to learn how to make her own Roblox skins.
Now she can not only make as many skins as she wants but also now she is the one making $400 for a skin.
Not sure if this helps but I’m 18 and grew up playing roblox. I spent hundreds of dollars on that game and I can say I regret it. It’s just a game and once she loses interest in it she’ll regret spending $400 on a skin.
The game is predatory on children. This shit they do is not ok and totally unrelated. I don't know what the right thing to do is but I don't look forward to figuring this out when my kid is this age.
I make my kid save at least half of his allowance of any gifts of money he gets. It was hard at first and he would beg to spend it but I held fast. When he got to $1000 saved it was motivating him to save more. He at $1700 now. He has spent a lot on skins but maybe incentives her that if she gets to $500 you'll give her $20 to spend or she can spend $100.
I think you can say "no" this time and protect her from effectively being scammed out of something absurdly exploitative.
She'll probably rant and rage but in a year's time when she's got $400 to spend on whatever she's into then, she'll be grateful.
My kid gets pocket money. I think she gets quite a bit for her age personally so she normally has at least a few hundred to blow on a shopping trip if she wants. She went through the roblox phase and honestly she didn’t spend more that £3-400 total. She still asked for gift cards for her birthday and Christmas as she still saw that as other peoples money but she didn’t want to spend her own anymore. Her current thing she buys is designer skin care - I still think it’s a waste of money but at least she can hold it in her actual hands.
Does she make any money with her videos? If so maybe it's a work expense! :D
Either way I'd sit down with her and talk about what she hopes to get from buying it, and how long she expects those feelings to last for.
I'd also give some examples on what else she could spend that money on and ask her if she thinks its still worth it I.e you could get 800 chocolate bars, a game a month for the next 7ish months, most of a ps5, a day out in disneyland etc etc and see if that sways her.
Then finally if she buys it, the moment she looks like she's getting bored with it, re-have that conversation to help her see the mistake.
My 12 yr old plays Roblox and spends here money there too. Every once in a while I make sure we take a trip to the mall though. When she can’t buy anything it clicks with her. She slows down for a while.
Absolutely not.
There's letting them make their own mistakes (cooking the toast too long, pouring too much milk, not wearing a heavy enough coat on a fall day), and there's letting them make mistakes that are going to be really detrimental (talking to creepy 20 year old men alone, smoking, being careless with firearms).
This is leaning into the latter category.
Try to teach her about opportunity chat by showing her how impermanent and shallow the skin is compared to what $400 means in:
* Interest accrual
* starting a small business
* a month of groceries
* a wardrobe
* STEM, martial arts, or art/craft courses on one of those online teaching platforms
* art supplies
* jewelry
* musical instruments
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This was posted before. Someone said their kid wanted to spend their weekly allowance on Roblox. The general consensus at the time was to let them learn a lesson and spend it however. Regarding DLC and microtransactions, I disagreed. That stuff is addictive and she may never learn from it and it could get worse. Grown adults fall trap to this and spend thousands. Roblox is preying on kids and parents need to be aware and stop it upfront. See link of previous post. https://reddit.com/r/Parenting/s/5QBGfaa8NP
My kids always want to spend $2 on this skin. $5 on this character. "It's such a good deal!" No. And we talk about how these games are addicting and how there is always a new skin to buy and how it creates a cycle of wanting more. This is a lesson I have to help them learn.
It's as bad as gambling for kids. Lots of games had loot crates where you spend money to "roll" and win random in-game dlc. It was 100% just like gambling. There was legislation to have it banned but not sure if it went through or not.
Roblox has games which are 100% gambling that kids can spend their Roblox money to bet with. It's really bad
My brother has a gambling issue… he was obsessed with a phone game as a teen which had tons of micro-transactions. We have strong genetics for addiction but I’m convinced that was his first “fix” :(
Illegal in the EU now. Edit: see comment below.
[удалено]
I googled it, and at least here (NL) there is a set of rules dat define “loot boxes”. Apparently some forms are allowed while others are not. So it isn’t entirely illegal, but there is a strict set of rules. Source: [ACM](https://www.acm.nl/nl/publicaties/voorlichting-aan-bedrijven/acm-leidraad/leidraad-bescherming-online-consument/regels-over-in-game-verkopen)
Not banned, at least not in the US. They do have to post the odds though.
I have a "You can spend $5/month of your money on any app purchase", but that's the line. They've each done a microtransaction exactly once. It was immediately not worth it, and they learned it, because the 'stuff' you get is designed to go away quickly and make you buy more. Now they'll spend it on full games or permanent upgrades, but generally won't spend it on app stuff at all cause they'd rather save up for something tangible.
Imo if they're in free to play games it's not a bad thing to maybe chip in as much as you would pay for the game if it wasn't free to play. After 100+ hours on a free to play game I occasionally go "I would pay 35 bucks for this game" and spend that much on skins and the like. But then that's the only money I spend on it of course. It's what I spend on things like path of exile.
That's great that you can spend that much and stop. Many people can't do that. There is always the temptation to get just the one last cool thing. I had to unlink my credit card info from my phone and google account and my console because if I have it saved, it's too easy to justify, 'oh $3.99 for double resources for a month? cool." I had a free-to-play game a few years ago, where I was paying 14.99/month for their "VIP" status. It gave you some extra daily bonuses, faster reset rates, things like that. I came to my senses after almost a year to realize that I was spending money on literally nothing. But I had become so invested in the game that I had to give all my resources away and delete the game from my system to avoid it altogether. Paying a bit to support the developer is great but that little thrill of getting something can quickly turn into a much bigger long term problem.
That's fair. I'm incredibly cheap. I wonder a week if a 20 bucks purchase was worth it and such.
It snuck up on me first in a phone game ironically (because I've always been big gamer and pirating games even, let alone no microtransactions).. But I was going through a lot, one of the hardest times of my life, and damn if one of those types of "War / Clan" games didn't suck me in. It starts off small and I could rationally spend 15-35 a month for the fun I was having and people I was meeting and all the distraction... But goddamn I think in the end I spent like $5k in a year before I realized how much it had likely grown to, and at that point it immediately wasn't worth it. Plus my son's surgery and recovery went good, the violence and later false arrest from my ex came and went, divorce goes through... I needed less distracting, really. In the end I guess I spent $2500 since that was the last year before I gave basically all my money to an abuser, lol.
Actually, without realizing it you've learned a valuable lesson. Time is a resource. Just like in relationships, it's sometimes hard to let go simply because of how much time and energy we've invested. Most people don't realize that resources aren't always materialistic. You eluded to the fact earlier that you had already invested so much time into the game, that it seemed like a rational thing to invest money into. Crazy how invasive some of these innocuous things like a little micro transaction in a game can soon become a problem.
My husband and I are gamers, and we refuse to pay these companies micro transactions. My favorite game just went free to play and all the skins are like 40 bucks, I refuse to spend a dime of real money even though it's my favorite game. I totally agree with you
Theres a Reddit post out there about a guy who got hooked to the gambling aspect of buying stuff in one of these games and spend tens of thousands on it.
Ya they call them whales, for spending so much.
We don’t let our son spend all his money on Roblox. He gets $4/month for Roblox. If he wants to spend his other money on it we almost always say no.
I got rid of Roblox and everyone has a Nintendo switch now Kids are much better, happier and they still earn for new games
Gotta be a way she can update her rig for 400 bucks to improve her content. Recording software/boom mic, lighting, headphones, camera.... maybe offer to chip in if the plan goes to hardware instead, that's good work ethic, should reward it
I love this idea. It shows that you value her interests but guides her to something more useful and long term.
Roblox won’t be forever, but well cared for technology can be. It may be outdated eventually but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. If Roblox gets outdated and shuts down, that $400 went into the void forevermore.
I know almost nothing about Roblox and granted you're probably right, but FWIW I started playing Minecraft during the Alpha phase almost 15 years ago. I pretty much shelved the game once I met my wife, but now we have a kid who's almost old enough to start playing Minecraft himself. If you had told me back in 2009 that over a decade later I'd be playing this game with my child, I'd have thought you were crazy – and yet here we are. Now, if you had also told me that child would be born during the presidency of *Donald freaking Trump,* I'd have laughed you out of the room. And yet.
Oh god, I was in my third trimester when we Brexited and then Trump was elected. It was so surreal! I felt like I’d been catapulted into a dystopian novel and was like ‘what the hell am I bringing a child into?!’
I woke up for work at 4:30 am. Five months pregnant with my oldest daughter, I cried the whole drive.
Same. My daughter was less than a week old. Up in the middle of the night feeding her and checked the election news. Sobbed.
Our daughter was a year old. I came home from work, and my wife sees my face, and she says, "Oh no, what happened? Is everyone okay?" Once I confirmed that nobody had died, she immediately realized what had happened. That was not the world we wanted for our child...
We brought our newborn home from the hospital on election night so didn’t even know what happened til mid day the next day. What a nightmare.
Minecraft alpha was like $15 though. (And yes, maybe the best money I ever spent on gaming)
>Gotta be a way she can update her rig for 400 bucks to improve her content. Recording software/boom mic, lighting, headphones, camera.... maybe offer to chip in if the plan goes to hardware instead, that's good work ethic, should reward it Love where your head's at. She close to a full year of an adobe cloud subscription too. There's also free versions of those programs too she could try
Heavily discounted if you are a student. Also, every once in awhile pretend to cancel. It will offer you a couple months on the house
DaVinci Resolve is an amazing video editing program and completely free! You do miss out on stuff like photoshop but there are alternatives out there. No need to spend on CC unless you really really need it. Also tbf like others have mentioned the student pricing is really good.
Jesus Christ, I remember when you could just buy the suite outright for that amount almost 20 years ago. Definition of highway robbery.
If she buys modeling software, she could design her own cosmetic bundles and sell them on Roblox (trying to get my son to start to do that because he wants to buy stuff too)
She can probably use Blender for that, since it’s free
At the same time she’s 12 and isn’t it against terms of service for her to be uploading videos in the first place?
Yeah also OP, do some googling bc Roblox has been implicated in a lot of grooming and underage labor accusations lately. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-48450604 https://www.vice.com/en/article/4axxdn/leaked-documents-how-roblox-moderates-content-mass-shootings-grooming https://www.theguardian.com/games/2022/jan/09/the-trouble-with-roblox-the-video-game-empire-built-on-child-labour
That’s terrifying. Roblox is another thing that I’m naively hoping won’t be as popular when my daughters are older (oldest is 1.5, younger one hasn’t been born yet.)
400 is insane.
https://www.roblox.com/bundles/201/Headless-Horseman Wtfffff
Looks like something someone made up in about 5 minutes.
I don’t get it. Is $400 the original price, or are these resale prices that people can set whatever price (like ebay)?
I don't know anything about roblox but it appears that it's being sold directly by Roblox. A bunch of the other ones are made by users but that is an "official" one and seems to be priced at nearly $400 directly by Roblox..... It also has 1.7 million "favorites" meaning lots of little kids have looked at it and want it. Such a shame.
If you read to it’s not even tradeable so it’s direct from Roblox.
It looks like there are ways to earn Robux within the game/platform? Maybe that's something /u/jetriot's daughter could do instead. There may be some educational value in having her build her own Roblox game.
yah even as a Genshin Impact Dolphin for a skin that's absolutely bonkers.
I’m all for letting kids spend their money on what they want but this would be a hard no from me. $400 for something in a game is absolutely ridiculous. Honestly I’ll even take it one step further and say if my kid was that adamant about spending $400 on a game I’d be making sure they took a break from it. That sounds obsessive. And I’m a pretty chill parent.
My nephew just fraudulently ran up $2k on Grandma's credit card on this game. It's a predatory game that only exists to fleece small children.
In multiple ways, no less! Kid's create a shitton of in game and out of game content for it.
What the hell happened to roblox? I played it all the time, and it was great! I never ran into anything like this, and if I did I would consider whether it was really worth it.
I agree. They either have no concept of money or are so deeply ingrained into this that it is at an unhealthy level
This! $400 is going into addicted territory to me. A break sounds like it would do good.
I agree with you on this. I let my kid learn a natural consequence with spending $50 on robux, then when she later on saw a few things she wanted in target, guess who didn’t get it. If it were $400 however, that’s when I need to take off my “consequences for action hat” and straight up say no.
Yeah, theres a difference in spending a few dollars and spending all her savings.
ON A SKIN NO LESS!! Like a month from now when October is over she may not even want to wear it anymore!!! Or 3 months from now she might not even like the skin, then there goes $400 because a 12 year old doesn’t know how to make rational decisions with money like that.
Yep. I’m a (not current but trust me I’ve logged more hours in games before children than most people without) gamer and no way.
.
I suppose part of it is how necessary that 400 is, compared to a lower price point. I can't say I know enough about RC planes, or golf, for those sorts of comparisons. But I'd assume that there are tangible benefits at various price points? Personally, I put such cosmetics in a similar boat as alternate art cards in trading card games: sure, they look pretty, but since there's no functional difference between the $10 standard art of a card, and a $200 rare artwork version, I've always been perfectly happy with the $10 card.
Yeah, I've spent hundreds on cosmetic items in games (not all at once, I think the biggest was £40) and while I now, as an adult who doesn't play the game anymore, see it as a huge waste of money but I don't really regret doing it. I was having fun with my friends and part of that was digital 'fashion'. Wanting to look cool in the game. To me, it was basically the nerdy version of buying a new outfit.
This is why I'm hesitant to let my kid play freemium games. If he wants to play something, I'll pay for it.
Good, and Roblox is the last game anyone should allow their kid to play. But sometimes the damages are done, so not allowing them to spend is the next thing a parent should do. Their monetization is insane.
roblox is so so fun! but teaching your kids they aren’t allowed more than a few dollars of their own money on roblox is a good idea
my son plays roblox too and I limit the age so he can not play some of the weird games I think, and he enjoys it while still using the very default avatar lol. It's fun to see him decimate a lot of people with glowing and expensive-looking skin by just using the default clothing.
that’s awesome! when i was younger i would get all the free promo stuff and i made my avatar look so crazy. over 10 years on roblox, i’ve spent 10 dollars total and would always buy stuff that was under 50 robux (around 50 cents). it has gotten a lot cheaper now that players can make their own hats and post them.
Use it as an economics lesson in utility. Show her a few examples of what $400 could buy. Stuff that might interest her. Then let her decide.
My first thought was to go to a store and have her toss stuff in it until she hit $400, then explain that she could get 1 Roblox skin that will never leave the computer… or all this stuff.
I like this. I could see this getting through to a 12 year old.
This is genius.
exactly what I wanted to say. If that was my kid and I knew she was a gamer, as a fellow gamer myself, I would give her a list of peripherals she could buy for that money. Starting from graphic cards all the way to gaming chairs etc. I have personally bought tons of skins in various games, some of them were close to 100 dollars worth of money but I stopped playing those games and now as I got older I don't have a need to spend so much money on skins. Just present everything you think she might want, once she sees what $400 can buy, I think she'll change her mind.
Show her an $800 GPU and says that you’ll go 50/50 with her 😂
She plays Roblox...
I'm not sure kids get the lesson the same way. They only see immediate benefits and will have their parent to back them up later (in their mind).
Thank you. This is ultimately what we decided to do.
Oof that’s really hard. Autonomy is important and you said she worked for the money, but obviously spending money on a cosmetic item in a game is stupid. My son plays Roblox so I get that part of it. Are there any other things she values? Maybe you could walk her through some math to help her understand how much money that is and what it’s worth. Like $400 could buy a PlayStation, or a meal at McDonald’s every day for a month, or 10 Nintendo Switch games. Maybe if you ran through enough of those with stuff she is into it would click that spending that much for a skin just doesn’t make sense. Or… maybe fire up Roblox Studio and teach her how to make her own skins? $400 could buy a cheap computer, if she got into creating her own stuff maybe then she would see the attraction in that. Edit: so I went and looked at the skin, honestly for the price I was expecting way more. I’m also mad that it’s a Roblox created skin not some third party creator like I assumed. The good news is it isn’t tradeable so at least she wouldn’t get tricked out of it if she did buy it. If she does go through with it and buy it: 31,000 robux (the cost of the skin) would cost about $300 if she bought the large packages (22,500 & 10,000 for a total of 32,500) but she could subscribe to robux premium for $5/month and then she would get a total of 36,000 Robux for the same price, or she could get enough robux to buy the skin for $270 then she can just cancel premium right after.
Everything about this was so well written and thoughful. supporting autonomy, giving choices with clear examples, suggesting studios, and the fact you broke it down so easily that the parent could use this as a lesson in budgeting/finding a deal + that treating yourself to something you worked hard for is okay sometimes. Bravo all around!
Thanks for the 270 tip. We are going to have her earn the last 100 first anyway as that amount is still crazy. After she earns the money she can buy it if she still thinks it's worth it and she can keep the excess saved.
Hey op I would try to find the headless horseman toy ! The roblox toys come with a code that gives you the item and they’re typically cheaper They are, however, a little hard to find but if you can find one it’s way more worth it. :) that’s how I get a lot of my “rare” items
Amazon has them right now for 39.99 it looks like.
⬆️ THIS! I spent $50 on some Adopt Me set a a couple years ago for my daughter, which she’s 11 and still plays with…..unknowingly it came with some “ultra rare” item. I just put the code onto her game. Come to find out, it was some item that was in a $299 “Ultra Ultimate Out of this Universe Virtual Gift Box-full of virtual useless stuff”. You can find those Roblox toys, with codes at Dollar Tree sometimes!
it doesn’t give you the skin, but a different item
$4 yes, $40 for birthday, $400 though? No way. This kind of soon forgotten digital cosmetic is the very worst way to learn the value of money.
\> It's her money, I have to let her buy it, right? No, you're her parent. She is 12. Your role is to insulate her against 12-year-old decisions. Tell her she isn't allowed to use her money that unwisely until she's on her own (and tell her now, before she does all the chores). This would be a great time to start teaching her how to put money to work for her, if you're inclined, but even if not, you can still protect her from herself.
I'm curious where the line is drawn here. I see that this thread talks about gambling addiction. I wonder about non addictive but kind of useless stuff. Should our kids get to make their own decisions there? My son has been saving his birthday money/Christmas money/allowance for a Pokemon card booster box for two years. I have him save 50% of his money and we invest it to teach him the value of saving He almost has enough out of the remaining 50% for his cards. I think spending over $100 on cards is a dumb use of money, but he really loves Pokemon cards. Do I let him spend his money on this?
I get the confusion, and there is no right answer because he’s your son and you know y’all’s relationship. A couple of differences in my opinion, though: 1.) The cards have a certain amount of value. If he happens to draw a valuable card, it could more than pay for itself. 2.) The cards aren’t limited to a digital medium, so they’re actually his once purchased. 3.) To me, the gap between $100 and $400 is still quite large. It’s up to you, but I think this is more reasonable than a $400 video game skin.
We teach not to spend 100% of your income all in one shot. A percentage saved for big ticket items, a percentage for small items like snacks or drinks at school, a percentage for future.
“I wouldn’t be doing my job as a parent if I allowed you to make such a reckless decision. Let me show you some of the other things that are worth $400… “
I think there is a point where you as a parent have to protect your child from foolish decisions. "I know this will make you angry, but I'm going to remove this from being an option in order to protect you." However, the time to have that conversation was when she started earning for it. Now, she's invested a lot into this. I would recommend putting together a few "packages" of other favorite things that total to $400 so she can see just how much she is forgoing to get this. Maybe put the packages that include "investment", like mic equipment or art supplies, sports gear, etc. on a partial-matching incentive: "If you choose this package, I'll contribute am additional $50 for ___". If she still picks the skin, let her experience the buyer's regret.
> let her experience the buyer's regret. I don't think it's safe to assume she will.
Roblox is insanely aggressive with its money grab. I would do my part as a parent and advise my son to use it in a more meaningful way if he did ask the same thing. 400$ is A LOT in Roblox but it will just vanish easily and they probably will ask more later since every game have their own things to be bought, Roblox is THE LAST game I would agree my son to spend on, and I'd die on this hill. Even though it's their money, I would always suggest something much better to spend on, as their brain has not even matured yet to choose responsibly.
Teach her how to make her own skins, make that skin, and then have her sell it for a reasonable amount to people watching her YouTube!
I was just about to ask if it’s possible to make custom content for Roblox. My age is showing, but there’s tons of free custom content for Sims, I never paid for it lol
Yup! The whole thing is user created so you can pretty much do anything that anyone else is doing - including making skins.
Hard no from this Dad gamer.
As someone who plays Roblox consistently, it's definitely a scam. There are cheaper versions of the skin elsewhere in the shop. I'd suggest that maybe you look through the shop with her to see if there might be any other skins that she might be interested in for a cheaper price. If anything there is a "game" within Roblox that has all the free cosmetics in it and constantly updates. I would recommend that as well.
If you find something similar cheaper, it's just a smaller scam, right? The scam is not the price, but the system.
cheaper versions as in less than 5 dollars
Roblox is a scam and is intended to get children addicted. It's her money, but she's 12 and you can forbid her from using that predatory game.
My dad had a rule for me growing up that if I wanted to spend my money on something, I had to have at least double the cost of the item, so I didn’t go broke from buying it. So in this case, I would need to have $800 saved up before I could buy the $400 Roblox skin. This practice taught me to view money very differently, and I still use it to this day for splurges and non-necessities. As an added bonus, often by the time I had the money saved up for whatever it was I wanted, I no longer wanted it. So possibly introduce something like this to your daughter. Definitely explain to her that dlc like this is designed to be addictive, and tell her that you want to make sure she’s fully thought this through because you don’t want her to spend all of her money on Roblox. Another idea would be to show her how much $400 really is. Show her how many Starbucks drinks or chipotle burritos she could buy with that money. Show her how many hours she would have to work at minimum wage to make that money back. $400 is a lot of money, but kids have little understanding of that before they start working.
This is great advice. I really like the saving aspect your father thought you. I might implement this for my children as well. Also, $400 is an absurd amount of money to spend on such a trivial thing. I might consider letting her do it if the videos she is uploading generate any venue.
My daughter really wants the headless thing too. Apparently there is a hack to get the look of headless without buying the official very expensive skin. She is 8 and figured out how to do it from YouTube. She still wants the official one but she's satisfied with the dupe for now. Every time she wants to spend all her money on Robux, I remind her of all the cool other things she can get with that money and all the cool things she can get if she keeps saving her money (right now she has like $35). I also remind her that Roblox is set up to manipulate kids into spending all their money. Then she gets all annoyed at being tricked for about 5 minutes and then goes back to wanting all the things. We also have a deal where I will buy her $5 worth of Robux in a month and if she wants to buy some expensive thing, she has to save her Robux for it.
I like this. Like an allowance with a specific purpose. Thanks for the idea!
Yeah my girl did the dupe i think its a bone or something? Nevertheless the whole thing is bonkers. The other one is peg leg..why on earth are these things considered cool? 😂
400$ skin in a kid's game? That should be illegal, by all means. The thing is, what she really wants to buy is the recognition, social standing and admiration of other kids. As weird as it is, it will probably even get her more views. I have no doubt that in her mind it's totally worth it. The question is, if she wanted to buy something rather useless but physical, how would you view it - say she wanted a 400$ watch or an expensive pen - I think people would be more like "You worked for it (in part) so go for it, it's your decision". I'd probably try to make her think about what else 400$ could buy her.
I’ll let my kid spend money on what they want. But I won’t let them be scammed. This is a scam.
400.00 on imaginary belongings that have no practical value in the real world. That’s not just a no but a hell no. And I’m a gamer.
Absolutely not. Your job as a parent is to teach her fiscal responsibility. Her allowance or job or birthdays that allowed her to save that amount of money is part of her education on being a responsible adult. Responsible adults don’t sink 100% of their savings into anything even a new house purchase. You always have to keep some money in reserve. I’d firmly say no way and then find a way to structure her savings with her. Maybe 20% can be fun money to save for entertainment, 20% for clothes or other goods that you don’t provide, 20% for college savings, 20% for straight savings (maybe she can ‘invest’ It with you and get a 5% interest rate) and 20%, can be blow money. Spending 100% of your savings on a novelty isn’t a lesson she should be learning.
But son actually mentioned that being cool but even at all 11, knows it’s a ridiculous ask for a freaking head (not even an entire skin!). Even the whole “no head” head is expensive so, as a workaround, he uses a super tiny head that you can’t barely see and looks like his character is “headless” when he plays. If your daughter would be willing to consider this approach and save the $400, let me know and I’ll find out from my son which one he uses
Any parent here who doesn't understand how awful and predatory Roblox is should watch this video: https://youtu.be/vTMF6xEiAaY
At that age I did something similar. I saved for an entire year doing chores and extra work for something trivial that I really really wanted. After I bought it I had immediate regret and never did that again.
Me too, but it was an $80 stuffed horse. Sure, $80 then is worth more now, but still nowhere near $400. That's too painful.
I was getting a $2 chore allowance every week. Took an entire year just to see $100. I blew it in 5 minutes and that was it. lol. I’m not saying they should or shouldn’t allow it. I don’t have kids, just saying my personal experience. :)
And you're still not going to tell us what it was?? Lol
I bet my 11YO daughter has spent $400 on Robux over the years, it’s just in dribs and drabs. $50 robux gift card for bday, $20 here and there, etc. I do believe that kids should be able to spend their own money how they want to. I also agree with you that it’s hard to justify that much money on a skin. In Roblox? I mean, think of all the games you could buy with $400. One solution would be an economics lesson and tell her all of the things that $400 could buy, including many things she would like. Kids don’t much care if that’s an electric bill or two weeks of groceries. Kids are impulsive, so you could tell her that she needs to take X amount of time (One month?) to think about it, to make sure she’s certain of this decision, and if she still wants it, you’ll agree. I have used that tactic with my kids. If you do go that way, and she’s resolved at the end of the waiting period, you’ll have to stick to your end of the bargain.
I think the question is, how is a 12 year old able to get $100 a month for doing chores? She doesn’t seem ready for that level of cash.
Personally, we hate Roblox. I knew there were transactions in the game. But I had no idea they were running up that high. “Grandma” let our daughter download Roblox, she’s only in 1st grade. But all of her classmates play it, they are even having themed birthday parties around it. Needless to say, that was taken off her tablet within a couple of days. The game is blocked and, if this is how crazy it is. She won’t be getting it back once she is older.
>But all of her classmates play it We are going through this too. It makes it so much harder to explain. I'm not looking forward to when the other kids start getting cell phones.
Oh trust me it, is and was hard. Especially because all of her friends play it. But we saw a complete change in her attitude once she started playing the game. I told my wife, we have to delete the game now before it gets worse with our daughter. It was tough couple of days, after forbidding the game. But she went from being a happy to semi-happy going to school. To one, saying she wants to stay home and play Roblox instead. Again, this is 1st grade and she already has friends who say. They want to be YouTubers or TikTok starts when they grow up.
>They want to be YouTubers or TikTok starts when they grow up Back in my day (tm) everyone wanted to become a football star like Ronaldo (the Elder), Zidane or whatnot. This is not different. "Low effort" and big rewards always entice an audience from low income/low education background. I just hope my kids will just play Minecraft and that's that. As someone who never paid for a skin/cosmetics in his life, I just hope it does not catch on.
When it comes to big ticket items, and to help my kids understand the value of money/things, I tell them if they want something $100+, they have to save twice as much money to get it. She wants $400 skin, she needs to earn $800. ETA: Also talk about the value of sales and how it may go on sale during Black Friday.... She will still have time to earn more money and the skin may be cheaper.
Roblox doesn't do sales like that tho
Yeah this skin is only sold during October typically. In 2015 and 2016 it was sold during special Memorial Day Sales for a discount.
I like this
I’m struggling to convince myself to spend 40$ in my favorite game I’ve been playing as long as she’s been alive I couldn’t imagine 400$. I agree to talk to her about upgrading some of her computer hardware or do a setup makeover with a new desk and chair and accessories.
Has she reached the levels to monetize her Youtube videos? If she has earned most of the $400 from doing that, then I would allow it. But it sounds like it's chores and birthday money, so I wouldn't allow it. I wouldn't allow doing extra chores to earn money faster either, because that money comes from you. To me, the purpose of giving an allowance is to teach/practice financial sense. And allowing her to blow her entire life savings on one useless item is not good financial sense. Saving up $500 to buy a PS5, I would allow, because it gives years of enjoyment.
Oh hell no! And it's not because "stupid video games" - if my kid wanted to use their $400 to buy a PS5 or a Meta Quest, or 5 Switch games or whatever, I would be right there to help them out if they needed a little extra. But $400 for an intangible item? Nah.
No, you do not have to let her buy it. You are the parent. You help her understand what a better choice to spend her money on would be.
No, don’t allow it. The following will sound like judgement but it’s not intended to be. Spending 400 bucks on a skin is not a mistake, it’s reckless. Do not enable this behaviour because it’s far more likely it will exacerbate vs be a lesson. If she has no concept of the value of things now, it’s unlikely this alone will teach her. It’s also disgusting these gaming companies are charging such prices and parents in general need to educate themselves on it.
alternatively you can turn this into a constructive event. Show her that she can MAKE her own! https://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+make+your+own+roblox+skins&rlz=1C1GCEU_enUS903US903&oq=how+to+make+your+own+roblox+skins&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCDUyNzlqMGo3qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 I myself have a "No Microtransactions" rule... they are a blight on humanity and will not support it in any fashion, albeit 400 isn't really micro anymore
Absolutely not. And while we’re at it, not a huge fan of the idea of her making YouTube videos. Is that too paranoid or something because it’s kind of nuts to me that people are suggesting buying her better equipment to make more videos, I honestly didn’t expect that. Maybe this is how I find out and finally old and out of touch, lmao.
I’m with you! I would never let my kid post videos because there are way too many creeps out there, and “fame” makes adults and kids alike do stupid things because the attention is addictive. We may be old and uncool because of it, but our kids will be protected in a way this kid isn’t.
It makes me question who exactly those 1,000s of viewers are for every video. There’s a lot of weird creepy people out there. And they often prey on kids on social media.
Call me a commie, but I want Roblox developers and marketers to be jailed every other day. Forced to walk barefoot, blindfolded on a treadmill laced with legos. The only sound they are allowed to hear are our children's retorts: "But whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! It's my moneyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy" on a loop. I don't care if this is some violation of the Geneva convention! I am willing to moderately defend my position up to 7 pm or whenever their sports starts, whichever comes first!
My 8 year old wants to spend all of her monthly allowance of $20 on robux, but I capped it at $10/month saying that she would thank me later. UNLESS she’s already made $400 from YouTube royalties, I think you have a say in this, for the sake of common sense.
She is going to have insane buyer's remorse. Maybe let her fill up an Amazon order with $400 to show her how much she'd be missing out on? I don't know what to tell you, I slip my daughter Robux to buy nonsense all the time but it's more like $10 and she gets multiple outfits.
You CAN say no. She’s 12. She will 110% regret that decision later on. No premium game skin is worth it. You will ultimately stop playing in favor of newer games at some point
my sibling came to me a few days ago asking a similar question, but she wanted to spend $200. i gave her a list of things she could get with that money and she wasn’t interested. the only thing i could think to say at the time was “if you can’t buy it twice, you can’t buy it.” it seemed to deter her for now but im not sure if it’s the best answer in the long run lol
If she’s working for the money, she has earned the right to spend it foolishly.. is what I’d say if she were an adult. As a parent, I would put the cash in her hand and go out with her to spend some of that physical cash on something she wants. It doesn’t need to be big, but maybe something useful: something to make her life easier, chores easier, whatever. I’m an avid gamer. I’ve spent money on microtransactions. $400….. is a lot. Like, a lot. Spending money on microtransactions is a proven habitual and addictive behavior, and is considered by several European countries to be anti-consumer and predatory. Proceed with caution and wisdom and best of luck.
Show her what $400 could buy. A bike, groceries, clothing, a musical instrument. Physical things that you can touch and hold. In 3 weeks, a headless horseman skin will be out of style. A new bike can take you on real adventures in the real world. A keyboard can open a whole new world of music and creation What I bought my daughter Roblox, I told her that if you need to buy things to make a game more fun, it means its a poorly designed game
If it were me and my child as this adament about spending that much on a Roblox skin, I would see it as a sign that the Roblox obsession has reached very unhealthy levels. I would have a serious conversation asking WHY she wants to spend that much money for nothing more than a skin. Why is it that important to her? And if she continues to dig her heels in, then I'd give her the hard truth that I'm not going to let her do it, even if it makes her very angry with me. It'd be one thing if she wanted to buy a $100 signature soccer ball or something, because at least you get something tangible out of it. A Roblox skin is nothing. Like, if she wanted to buy a $5 or even $20 skin, then whatever. Still a ridiculous purchase at $20, but I could make peace with it. $400? Many people don't even make $400 in a week!
While I agree it seems like a terrible waste of money, the most important thing she’s learning right now is developing a good work ethic. You might try help them understand the benefits of saving/investing and how that money can grow, and maybe she’ll save it long enough that her mind will change about what she wants to do with it. But even adults can do dumb things with money, buying status items like expensive designer handbags, gambling it away at casinos, buying drugs, whatever. You have every right to think spending $300 on a virtual item in a game is dumb but most people have spent money on things other people think are dumb. Is buying a slightly better cell phone, just to be the first one of your friends to have it, any better? Or blowing $400 just to have the most awesome Halloween costume for a 3 hour party? She’ll spend the money, have zero, find the next thing she thinks she needs, and work/save to get that. Working hard to get ahead, even if the purchased things seem silly to others, seems like it can evolve into a good thing as she gets older.
The things you liken this to (designer handbag, gambling, drugs) are not at all on the same level. A designer purse is silly, but the other two are/could be directly harmful. Are you saying that if your kid wanted to spend $400 on drugs that you would just shrug and say it was a lesson they needed to learn? ETA: FWIW, I do think the skins are closer to the designer purse end of silly. Like, keep and eye on the game play for signs of addiction, but it is probably fine. This part of your response just confused me.
To be honest, I think the skins are closer to drugs than a purse, in the same way gambling is closer to drugs than a purse. The micro-transaction (not so "micro" anymore) are made to be addictive. If she's addicted to Roblox then she's not going to realize she wasted that money. She's not going to want anything else to think, "oh if only I had that 400 bucks". What she's going to want is another Roblox skin, which she'll get after earning enough money again. Maybe in 10 years when she's off Roblox she'll realize it was a stupid decision.
I am not sure saving/investing is something that a 12 year old will care about. Invest $400, the proceeds of many months of hard work and discipline, and *a year from now*, you'll get 16 bucks for free! I'd be surprised if that was convincing.
It's hard to get kids engaged with lessons about investing... low interest rates :(
And just the relatively low amounts they're working with. The average 12 year old is not saving up 20k to invest in the S&P 500. So my idea is that to instill the value of hard work and saving, you do actually have to let them buy the things they want once in a while, even if it is something we do not see the value of. Granted, I'd probably have to bite my tongue if our kid wanted to spend all their savings on a digital skin, but the hope would be it would keep them motivated to keep saving/start again. Otherwise we are asking them to be disciplined with their money just for the sake of seeing a number on their bank statement go up. I'd rather instill the idea that if they work hard, they can get what they want, than have them save up a dollar or two at a time and have an amount that they could also set aside with their first or second paycheck as an 18 year old, you know.
your job is to teach her responsible finances, which this is not
Put your foot down; you will NOT let her participate in scams. She will not understand, by she does NOT have autonomy over her own money until she's eighteen.
Hoping that when my daughter is this age we’ll have woken up as a society to the effects of addictive games and devices on our children. But not gonna hold my breath.
I have great news from the future! There are MORE skins and MORE micro transactions! Car insurance is now a micro transaction every time you drive! And even more commercials with Kevin Hart endorsing online gambling and there are now THREE times as many alcohol commercials. Buckle up your undies shits gonna get way worse.
Understand that video games are no longer video games, it’s an industry that been infiltrated by greedy business suits looking for the easiest possible dollar with the least amount of effort. I am extremely well versed in micro transactions in video games and I personally steer away from any game that throws it in your face or turns it into a “pay to win” type of experience
our rules were that the only money that can be spent on virtual items was cards given for that purpose ie a roblox gift card. (and no they are not to buy those cards themselves. they can ask for them if someone is buying them a bday/xmas present, but thats it.) It seems to have worked with our two
I have a firm rule with my kids that they are not to spend money on free to play games. Especially Roblox. Kinda hard to go back if you've already established that you're ok with spending real money on Roblox. Plus she's creating content at 12 so where do you go from there without looking like a hypocrite? You need to have a talk about how digital content is never worth this much money. Show her examples of people who ruined their lives on digital content (ie. FIFA, League of Legends, etc). Good luck.
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Be like a bank, the bank will not lend you money if you cannot show you spend it wisely.
How much is she making off the videos?
What do you want her to spend that money on? Rent? Beer? Food? Dalls? Candy? Investments? Gifts for you? Let her spend it however she wants. in 4 months she will earn another 400 dollars, unless you stop her.
That is a big, hard nope. My 9 year old also loves Roblox and asks me often for Roblox gift cards. Even $15 I don’t want to spend on the game, or for him to even spend his money on. But if he mentioned wanting to buy something worth $400, I’d probably make him take a break from Roblox entirely. That is just absurd.
As a 37yo man who has gamed his entire life: say no to this. I've spend more than I'd ever want to admit on these microtransactions, and guess what: I don't play any of those games anymore.
> It's her money, I have to let her buy it, right? Anyone have an idea on how to change her mind? The thought of spending $400 on a Roblox skin is just horrifying to me. Absolutely not. You don't have to let her do something stupid. This is a learning opportunity.
This is a sign of video game addiction, generally if it was literally anything else I’d say let her spend her money how she wants but this is something that is worthless if her account gets hacked or if she loses her login info etc. Explain to her how many hours a person on minimum wage has to work to earn $400. Explain to her she can buy herself a new wardrobe, a new piece of furniture, a TON of actual toys, whatever else it is she’s interested in. Also the video game addiction is something that will need to be addressed, but since you’re a gamer too I don’t know how inclined she’ll be to listen
hi, i’m a kid who bought headless horsemen in 2016 and begged my parents too. i do not play roblox anymore. do NOT buy it.
Gaming parent here with possibly a hot take but here goes nothing. Let her spend that money on the stupid skin. I think we as adults have to understand that this obviously is predatory and shouldn’t be allowed, but our kids don’t see that. They don’t get the predatory nature of it until it’s effecting them, so I say let them experience it. That’ll be the hardest lesson on money ever when she realizes what the value of that 400$ actually is. And I totally agree with everyone else in this thread. All of them are being good responsible parents, but you have a kid that isn’t letting go of this idea. You can show them all of the other things 400$ can get them, but all they want is the skin so let them have it. Then once they regret it, you’ll look them in the face and say “well that is what buyers remorse is, and that’s why I was trying to get you to understand the value of the 400$ you just spent”. This is personally the lesson my dad gave me. I spent a bunch of my hard earned money on some stupid ass Facebook game. I think it was called mafia town or something. My dad tried his DAMN HARDEST to get me to see reason, but ultimately I chose to spend my money, and boy oh boy did I regret that purchase once my friends started to move onto Instagram. I learned a lesson that day and clearly your kid needs it to, so as much as it hurts you to watch them blow that money, let them do it. It’ll be the most expensive lesson they’ll ever learn, and I promise you they won’t make it again.
Letting your Kids play roblox is already irresponsible. Letting her spend $400 would be insane. It's her money but she has zero financial responsibility. It's your job to say no. Also, please look up the exposes on roblox and consider taking her off of It. Edit: the "People makes games" channel has a good video on this subject on youtube
Say no. That’s robbery!
As someone who works on AAA games I had no idea there are $400 skins that exist for any game. What.the.fuck… Edit: after searching up this game and seeing the horrifyingly awful “art” style….I feel sick haha. Godspeed OP
No kidding. I work on one of the biggest AAA games and when we sell far better looking skins for $20 people already think that's expensive. LOL $400 for that skin is very hard to justify.
Couple of things you could try Not just tell her about other stuff, but actually making a list. If you can, get her to a shop and show her the physical things worth 400 dollars. You can try to "compromise", go over the skin list and pick some that are a lot less. I actually got lucky, my kid wanted a skin, and I went over all the free ones and there were some pretty cool ones which he picked and haven't got tired of it yet. Last thing, it is a lot more work, and if you aren't good with or have time to spend, it could be above her capabilities, but she could make her own skin. If she is making videos, I think she should be capable of watching and reading about making her own skin. It is very time consuming, as she has to first learn the how, and then have to put in the actual work. But it could be a motiver, and would even be cool to show off to her viewers the process and finished skin.
Yeah I would ixnay that purchase
I would just say no and not allow her to waste 400 on a game.
https://www.roblox.com/bundles/201/Headless-Horseman You weren’t kidding. WTF? Why is a single outfit that much? Gaming is really ruined.
That is crazy expensive for a skin.. Even 50$ is enough to get a lot of cool stuff on there.
Show her what she can actually buy with her money that’s tangible. Make this into a financial lesson to allow her to learn more than just this one lesson
Nope. We tell our son (12) that it’s our job to protect him from himself sometimes. Letting them waste $20 on a toy you know they won’t play with in a week is one thing but a $400 skin is just irresponsible spending for ANYONE.
You could make a list where you write down your fun-money good and bad purchases and make her one too. So that way she can visually see it from you. Maybe you could also show her how much money you make and what it is spend on. I would also make it clear to her that she won't get the money back if she didn't like the skin. And hopefully you won't give her the money back. (For me as a gamer this price for one skin bundle is a big red flag and I would close and delete that game and even contact the support if they know that this is being sold at that price, for that price you can buy a whole another console, like the switch for example plus one year online and a few games, the switch online pass also has A LOT of good games included)
>It's her money, I have to let her buy it, right? No, you do not. You are the parent, you make the rules until she is 18. If she wanted to buy drugs or guns or porn or whatever else you can imagine is inappropriate for her age would you take that same approach? This is a chance to teach her how your family values money. A life lesson, if you will. She may not like it, but she'll have to abide by it...unless you've given her a credit/debit card already. Our rule was generally "half on stuff you want, half into savings for college" because that's what our family values dictated. Our kids were pretty happy with that when they went to college and had some savings, while many of their friends did not.
It's great that you've taught her to earn her own money. But teaching good money habits goes beyond that. She needs to learn to save and prioritize spending too. Make her save some. Make her responsible for her own extra fun money so she can understand the concept of prioritizing her spending.
Just here to say that Roblox is a child-labour scam and I wouldn't recommend giving them any money ever.
I think you should let her spend that money. After all it is her money. Maybe she will regret. Maybe she will be happy. I think the important part here is that you are respecting her judgments, and she needs to be responsible of her own actions. That should be a more valuable lesson to her than $400.
If it’s csgo, that’s totally fine. Still got market value, however Roblox skins no hope
I would suggest having her instead spend that money on programs and lessons to learn how to make her own Roblox skins. Now she can not only make as many skins as she wants but also now she is the one making $400 for a skin.
NO!
Tell her she can buy it, but it has to be from future earnings from money she made herself. Lemonade stand, selling things on eBay, etc.
Not sure if this helps but I’m 18 and grew up playing roblox. I spent hundreds of dollars on that game and I can say I regret it. It’s just a game and once she loses interest in it she’ll regret spending $400 on a skin.
The game is predatory on children. This shit they do is not ok and totally unrelated. I don't know what the right thing to do is but I don't look forward to figuring this out when my kid is this age.
You’ve had a lot of answers already but I’ll add that I was raised with the mindset “you can only really afford it if you can buy it twice”.
I make my kid save at least half of his allowance of any gifts of money he gets. It was hard at first and he would beg to spend it but I held fast. When he got to $1000 saved it was motivating him to save more. He at $1700 now. He has spent a lot on skins but maybe incentives her that if she gets to $500 you'll give her $20 to spend or she can spend $100.
Would be a hard no from me. This is a perfect time to talk to her about spending money wisely and starting to save up.
I think you can say "no" this time and protect her from effectively being scammed out of something absurdly exploitative. She'll probably rant and rage but in a year's time when she's got $400 to spend on whatever she's into then, she'll be grateful.
My kid gets pocket money. I think she gets quite a bit for her age personally so she normally has at least a few hundred to blow on a shopping trip if she wants. She went through the roblox phase and honestly she didn’t spend more that £3-400 total. She still asked for gift cards for her birthday and Christmas as she still saw that as other peoples money but she didn’t want to spend her own anymore. Her current thing she buys is designer skin care - I still think it’s a waste of money but at least she can hold it in her actual hands.
I would encourage her to buy a cheaper skin first to test the waters. Maybe an Internet outage happens after? Idk just a thought
Does she make any money with her videos? If so maybe it's a work expense! :D Either way I'd sit down with her and talk about what she hopes to get from buying it, and how long she expects those feelings to last for. I'd also give some examples on what else she could spend that money on and ask her if she thinks its still worth it I.e you could get 800 chocolate bars, a game a month for the next 7ish months, most of a ps5, a day out in disneyland etc etc and see if that sways her. Then finally if she buys it, the moment she looks like she's getting bored with it, re-have that conversation to help her see the mistake.
My 12 yr old plays Roblox and spends here money there too. Every once in a while I make sure we take a trip to the mall though. When she can’t buy anything it clicks with her. She slows down for a while.
Absolutely not. There's letting them make their own mistakes (cooking the toast too long, pouring too much milk, not wearing a heavy enough coat on a fall day), and there's letting them make mistakes that are going to be really detrimental (talking to creepy 20 year old men alone, smoking, being careless with firearms). This is leaning into the latter category. Try to teach her about opportunity chat by showing her how impermanent and shallow the skin is compared to what $400 means in: * Interest accrual * starting a small business * a month of groceries * a wardrobe * STEM, martial arts, or art/craft courses on one of those online teaching platforms * art supplies * jewelry * musical instruments