If you're doing everything you can to save for your children's college education, chances are it's because you think that will give your kids the best start in life.
Here's a radical thought: Maybe the best thing you can do for your kids is ask them to pay at least some of their own way.
New research from the School of Family Life at Brigham Young University finds that kids whose parents are footing the entire college bill, including tuition, books, housing and recreation money, were most likely to be partying and possibly floundering.
"Parents who pay for everything - including their children's recreation and fun money - they have children who are more heavily into drinking, drug use, marijuana use," said Laura Padilla-Walker, associate professor of at BYU's School of Family Life.
Padilla-Walker's research also found that the kids whose parents were paying for everything had less of a sense of what they wanted to do in the future than those who were getting little or no help from Mom and Dad. Not surprisingly, they also were less likely to be working while going to school.
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The findings, which were based on an analysis of about 400 college kids across the country, suggest that it may be good for kids to at least pay for some of their own expenses while they are in college. Without the structure of a job or the responsibility of having to pay some of their own way, some kids may simply be getting distracted.
At the very least, parents may be able to stop fretting so much about saving for college.
