Tony and I have been talking about getting John officially started on an allowance and chores. Right now, he does a couple things around the house, but doesn't have a set of clearly defined responsibilities. Most of them are also only performed on request, and sometimes with 3 minutes of complaining for a 1 minute task.
-Feeding Keats
-Putting dirty laundry in the chute (always his, sometimes he empties our basket also)
-helping to put away the laundry
-taking his plate and utensils to the sink after meals
-setting the table
-helping to unload the dishwasher
He's also pretty good at fetching things for me when I'm nursing Christopher.
Now that he is starting to be interested in money as a tool, rather than just a round, shiny object, we think it might be time for an allowance... Our biggest debate is whether he should get it free and clear or whether it should be tied to a set of specific chores he is required to do.
I have been re-inspired to get this going by a post from my sister Jenny and a blog she follows, about a mom trying to correct a sense of entitlement in her older children.
I also heard a podcast on the Parents' Journal (a radio show) about a woman who actually gives her kids a set amount each week and they have to manage it well enough to buy their own food and clothes. Even when they were as young as 10 or so!
So, let the commenting begin. What did you have to do when you were a kid? What do your kids have to do? Do they get money from you? With what conditions? How do you think it should be? How do you think it might actually work in the real world?
Route 66: New Mexico
23 hours ago
7 comments:
Wow! It's already time to think about these things, huh? Well, when we were kids, we didn't get an allowance, but we were paid for doing certain chores--hauling wood: 2 cents a log; dusting the living room: 25 cents; vacuuming the living room: 25 cents; etc. This worked out pretty well, I think. Sometimes, though, it wasn't optional. We always cleaned the house on Saturday morning and you did what you were told, and happened to get paid for it. Saturday afternoon we grocery shopped, which was a great lesson in money when Mom started sending us on our own with $60 to feed the family for a week. And Saturday night we watched Golden Girls. Awesome!
I can't remember what we did. I do remember vacuuming was always something that I did, but I think we got a free and clear allowance and then there were things that we were asked to do - but I can't remember if we did it regularly or not.
I do remember that when I got my Nintendo (original), having an index card that tracked the work I was doing to "pay" for my half of the Nintendo (Mom and Dad of course paid for the other half free and clear).
I like Christine's family's per chore rate, with the expectation of some things happening, and then possibly other things being extra. Kind of like having a job with a regular salary and then overtime.
I just know that Mom and Dad were insanely generous - way beyond anything that I even remotely earned or deserved!
We paid Henry a dollar to move rocks out of a flower bed yesterday, but he really doesn't seem to care much about money. The more useful tool in our house is setting a timer and letting the kids play on the computer with the extra time they have when they finish their chores.
The girls are 6 and 4 and we have set chores that they do - making the bed, turning off the nightlight, helping unload the dishwasher, etc. And these don't get an allowance - I told the girls that they had to do that stuff because they were part of the family.
As a kid, we got $20 a week, but that was in highschool and it had to cover my lunch money and gas to and from school/work. Remember when you could fill up your tank for less than $20 and still have money left over? Sigh.
We probably won't do the allowance thing with the girls for a while.
I am like jessica...i don't remember exactly how it worked for us, but i do remember a few things.
i think we did get an allowance free and clear. i do also specifically remember having a 'help wanted' type sheet on the fridge that had extra jobs for extra money. i do remember getting paid $5 to mow the yard.
i'm anxious to get naomi started on an allowance too, but i don't think she's quite ready yet. we do talk to her about money topics when it applies to what we are doing (things cost money, that is very expensive, you could save your quarters to get X, when you get money you save some in piggybank, spend some and help others, etc.)
i like the idea of tying her allowance to a few basic chores (above a few chores that are her responsibility b/c there are some things you do without pay), and also having 'extras' where she can earn additional money. but again, not just yet...
jeff's family had "official" contracts that outlined each kids' responsibilities and how much they earned each week. i'll have to see if he can dig his up!
Wow, you lot are very responsible/sophisticated over there. I just remember getting 20 pence a day 'pocket money'(from the age of about 6 or 7) to do with as I saw fit. I do remember saving up for a week to get mum a ring (plastic of course, but I don't think I understood that at the time,) from the village store for her birthday.
Not only did we not get an allowance, my parents made all of us give 50% of all money we earned outside the house (babysitting, lawnmowing, and whatnot) to them. 10% was for the church, 20% was for our savings account, and 20% was to honor thy mother and thy father. They said we had a choice - we could keep it all, and they would never buy us anything fun ever or give us extra money for a movie or a candy bar or ANYTHING EVER. Or we could give them half as stipulated, and they would supplement our "entertainment" budget as they saw fit. I find this so hilarious, given that they are extreme fiscal conservatives, and yet they behaved a lot like the dreaded "tax 'n spend liberals" that they revile!
Anyway. I don't plan on doing this with my kids, nohow, but I don't think it scarred me for life. And it was partly necessity - my parents had 9 people living on one salary, there wasn't a spare few bucks to throw at each of their five kids. And while they made me pay for things like my Nintendo, or any games for it, or my YA mystery books, or extra things like that - if I wanted to go to pizza after theatre rehearsal with my friends and I was skint, they'd give me a $10 no strings attached (and no guilt attached either). It wasn't a fraught relationship.
*Note my parents grew up, like, DUST BOWL GREAT DEPRESSION poor in dangerous downtown Pittsburgh, and had supported their parents through jobs from their teens. I think this influenced their attitudes towards money.*
Jack's still not quite 2, so don't know what we're going to do with him. Knowing my husband, though, it will involve very detailed budgeting and responsibility.
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