For some parent and guardians, it was just a stop gap measure. They were going to square things as soon as they used it to clean up their own mess. Besides it’s not like they don’t have time. The child is nowhere near adult age and if they are so what. They don’t need a credit card right now anyway.

The point is since the parent's credit is for all intent and purposes ruined, then the next best thing is to find someone who has a clean slate and "borrow" it. Enter the children.

As consumer advocate Denise Richardson puts it, "Kids make perfect targets for identity thieves because the theft of a child's identity can go undetected for a long period of time." Time is the keyword. The idea is to take what you need for right now, keep the child's credit at five star level and then as soon as the parent has extricated themselves from debt, return the credit to the child unscathed and no one will be the wiser.

That is all well in theory. Reality is whole different matter. For one thing unless these adults are going to join some money management reform program, it is almost a sure thing that they will destroy their children's credit just as easily as they wrecked their own.

For another thing life has a funny way of intruding. The parent starts to pay off a debt then something else totally unexpected pops up. Suddenly a family illness (maybe the child) or job loss (and in this economy that is very possible) compounds the problem.

Before you know it the creditors are hounding their child. Even if both parents are together and work around the clock, it will still take them years to repair the damage. If they don't then the child's passage into adulthood is going to be a rough one. Denise Richardson: "Often, the theft isn't discovered until a young adult is denied a student loan, credit or employment, all because of a destroyed credit rating."

Like it or not we live in a credit based world. It's sometimes seems like an absolute necessity so as to take the next step financially. If the child eventually grows up to destroy their own credit, so be it. The last thing they need however is a push from someone who is supposed to have their best interest at heart.