Children and 'pocket money'

In a somewhat surprising finding, a survey reveals that children in Scotland receive the most 'pocket money' per capita in the UK, followed by those in the south-west. Curiously, or perhaps not so curiously, these are not the wealthiest parts of the country; the part that is, the south-east, gives its children considerably less.

I seem to recall that, in the dim and distant (sigh!) days when I received 'pocket money', my level of pocket money always seemed 'adequate', if not exactly generous and like most children I probably spent most of it on sweets, although I did spend quite a bit of my limited resources on books, magasines and even charity (I've supported one particular charity continuously since I was about thirteen).

The only amusing incident I can recall is that one month my father forgot to give me my allowance and I didn't bother to mention it because I had enough money saved at the time for several months anticipated spending. However, the following month I did ask for my allowance for that month along with the allowance for the previous month that he had forgotten about, adding that I wanted late interest at the Bank of England base rate for the overdue period and that this would amount to an additional amount of 'X' (I forget how much it was, probably only a few tens of pennies). My father and my mother exchanged startled glances and he said, "sorry, son, here it is" - no arguments, just a bewildered look on both their faces. It is probably now no surprise to anyone why I found myself making banking my career!