Please list "jobs" that you pay your children to do around the house and yard

[Sunshine State Sue]

My husband is wanting to allow ds14 to earn some money by performing "jobs" around the house and yard. His idea is paying ds to take out the trash. I am adamantly opposed to this since I don't think that ds should have a choice in taking it out or not. FTR, I'm the one who generally takes it out.

 

OTOH, I am not adamantly opposed to paying for weeding, raking, washing the cars, etc. though I was certainly never paid for it as a child.

 

So, how do your children earn money around your house?

 

TIA!

[Heather in WI]

We pay for mowing the yard, raking leaves, and washing the car.

 

All other chores (e.g. taking out the garbage, emptying the garbage in bedrooms/bathrooms/schoolroom, picking up, dusting, and vacuuming) are not compensated. They are expected to be performed cheerfully as members of the family. :-)

[Chris in VA]

I've just started giving my dd9 a quarter for emptying the cat box. She sometimes gets a bonus quarter (or a dime) for emptying her brother's trash. She has lots of chores, including emptying the trash around the house on Weds (or when I remember...), sweeping (mostly wood floors here), clearing the table, cleaning her room, dusting, cleaning the downstairs (no tub) bathroom, etc.

 

Now something you might try or adapt is my hubby's idea--he wanted the basement painted, so he went around and penciled in 1ft tall "prices" for each wall--what he was willing to pay. The boys could earn $ for the summer that way. I think most walls were $10; some long ones were $20. They did a great job, practiced a useful skill, and were quite satisfied with themselves.

[LauraGB]

Things, in addition to personal cleanliness/upkeep (bedroom, sheets, etc) that contribute to a base weekly allowance:

 

• emptying the dishwasher
  
• cleaning up after dinner
  
• cat litter/dog duty :)
  
• feeding the animals
  
• weekly wipe down/sweep of bathroom (we have 2 bathrooms, each kid gets one to clean)
  
• vacuuming/dusting when requested
  

Things they can do to earn extra $:

 

• shoveling
  
• weeds (we seem to have an unusual abundace!)
  
• push mowing/trim work
  
• cleaning sections of the basement
  
• cleaning sections of the garage
  
• washing the car
  
• mopping the floors
  
• folding and putting away laundry (paid per basket :))
  

However, I pay based on the quality of the job; if they rush through and do a cruddy job, they get paid less (or not at all, on occasion). If it is a great and thorough job, they will be paid accordingly. I really don't mind offering a regular allowance, especially at my kids' age, because I would end up giving them the $ to buy the things they wanted anyway - at least this way I get something for it :D. And, yes, I believe they benefit from the extra responsibility ;).

[RoughCollie]

I just read that self-employed people can pay their children up to about $5K a year for doing actual work in the business. The self-employed person does not need to pay employment taxes for their children who are under the age of 17. Payment should be by check and careful time records should be kept.

 

I'm going to look into this further on the IRS website because it is a great way for my kids to earn money while actually benefiting the family -- and it is a tax-deductible business expense.

 

I used to give my kids an allowance for doing chores on a no work = no pay plan. We can't afford that right now, so everyone works for "free".

 

I divide the chores up like this: Bathroom Buddy, Floor Fairy, Kitchen Kid and Laundry Lad (or Lady).

 

Bathrooms: cleans bathroom daily, takes out trash, and when older does the weekly deep cleaning of the bathroom.

 

Floors: sweeps daily and vacuums every couple of days, feeds and waters the dog, and when older, mops.

 

Kitchen: unloads dw, cleans counters, stove, sink, takes out garbage. When older, adds washing the pots & pans after dinner.

 

Laundry: washes, folds and puts away towels, sets the table, retrieves the mail.

 

Right now, I have 2 Kitchen Kids and no Laundry Lad -- one helps before dinner, and one after dinner. The kids do their own laundry, I wash the towels for everyone. They keep their jobs for a month. My goal is to turn them into adults who can take care of themselves.

 

I never pay anyone for cleaning up after themselves. The only point of paying them was to give them some spending money that they had worked for.

 

I used to pay the kids extra for raking, cleaning out the garage and shoveling snow. [Previously, we used to pay a yard man for shoveling, plowing, raking, and mowing.] We used to assign 2 kids to take the garbage cans and recycling to the curb every week, and paid a bonus for that.

Edited February 2, 2010 by RoughCollie

[Aggie]

We pay the dc for my jobs that I don't want to do. It's usually gardening related in the summer. In the winter it might be changing sheets, making my bed, dusting, etc. We pay our older dd to teach piano to our ds.:001_smile:

[Susan in KY]

I adapted our system from Dave Ramsey and the Economides family. We pay for most jobs.

 

Here's how it works:

 

They can earn a point a day (M-F) for each of four categories: Schoolwork done, cheerful attitude, at school on time with basic chores done (teeth, beds, breakfast, dressed), and finally the daily duty point, which changes each week (laundry/trash for one, kitchen duty for the other).

 

One point is worth ten cents. If they earn all 20 points (4 points X 5 days) and then look for and do two more jobs that need to be done—without being asked—they can earn $5 for the week. (Like a yearly bonus, only on a weekly basis. Hitting the goal of $2.20, or having a perfect week, earns them $5 total) On Saturday, they are expected to help just because they are members of the family and it's what cheerful and helpful people do. If they miss their daily chore, they have to pay the sibling or me to do it.

 

I understand not wanting to pay them for housework, but I decided to because, in reality, it is their job to be a student and to do these things consistently. They rise to it, and I let them know it's job training for the future.

 

So far it works well. I bought a note-style calendar at Michael's in their $1 section, with space for writing under each day. On that, I put all their school assignments for the day, and their weekly assignments (kitchen or laundry/trash) and I use that for their pay stubs. If it's not filled out, they don't get paid. They are not allowed to fill it out at the last minute or retroactively.

 

Maybe I'll blog about it later. I should. It's been a great system. I'll edit this post if I do.

[Susan in KY]

Bathroom Buddy, Floor Fairy, Kitchen Kid and Laundry Lad (or Lady)

 

I'm going to shamelessly swipe this! :D Thanks for sharing!

[Impish]

Thus far, nothing.

[RoughCollie]

I'm going to shamelessly swipe this! :D Thanks for sharing!

 

You'll find the boys especially like having Floor "Fairy" duty. :D I couldn't think of another "F-word".

[teamturner]

Most inside chores are part of their regular chores and we pay them an allowance based on that, I think $2 a week. Trash, vacuuming, emptying dishwasher, sweeping, mopping, dusting, room upkeep, glass cleaning, setting table, cleaning the bathroom counters and toilet, feeding dog, picking up after dog in the yard are all part of their regular chores.

 

We pay extra for helping in the yard, washing the car, vacuuming the inside of the car, cleaning the car windows. I don't pay extra for general cleaning out the car of all the junk! I've also paid one of my dc to dust the window blinds.

 

My thinking is that for a chore to be worthy of being paid for it must be challenging and time consuming.

[BikeBookBread]

We had friends who used to pay their children .01 cent for each crab apple they picked up off of the ground. Depending upon their motivation and speed, the kids could make quite a bit.

[Pink Fairy]

Cleaning the stove

Cleaning out the fridge

Organizing the pantry

Organizing all our school stuff--books, art supplies, games, etc.

 

These are all fairly unpleasant jobs that take a considerable amount of time to do properly, and I'm happy to pay someone else to do them. I put grading in that same catagory. I pay my dd12 $1/day to grade all the school work--a tremendous bargain, imo, because she spends between 30 min to an hour on it every afternoon. She's made quite a tidy sum over the last year and a half, and actually does a much more thorough (and particular--she's a TOUGH grader) job than I ever did. I am still the one who works with the kids on problem areas, and I grade things like writing, but I loathe grading in general and was thrilled to pass on the majority of the job to someone else.

[Jean in Newcastle]

We have normal chores that are not paid jobs.

 

Paid jobs - these are not weekly jobs but tend to be seasonal

 

disinfecting the outside garbage cans - a twice yearly job done outside.

raking leaves (again seasonal)

weeding - 50 cents per paint bucket full

washing windows

repotting plants when needed

shredding old files (everything that goes into the shredder must be pre-approved!)

washing the dogs

[ereks mom]

Regular chores include vacuuming, sweeping, dusting, mopping, cleaning bathrooms, and doing laundry. We would occasionally pay them for "going above and beyond" and doing extra stuff such as washing the car or doing yardwork. I also used to pay ER 10 cents per book to read to EK (preschool/picture books) when she was a preschooler and he was in the primary grades.

[Lizzie in Ma]

We all share in the housework and chores and the reward is having a warm, inviting place to live in.

 

As a child I was also never paid to do chores nor did we have an allowance.

 

For pocket money we mowed lawns, raked or babysat for other people.

 

Disclaimer:

Doesn't work for everyone and I have no problems with those that do. :D

[Lizzie in Ma]

Now something you might try or adapt is my hubby's idea--he wanted the basement painted, so he went around and penciled in 1ft tall "prices" for each wall--what he was willing to pay. The boys could earn $ for the summer that way. I think most walls were $10; some long ones were $20. They did a great job, practiced a useful skill, and were quite satisfied with themselves.

 

 

that is BRILLIANT!!