Allowances vs earning money doing chores ...

[Luanne]

Do you just give your child an allowance each week just because ... (fill in reason here) or do you make them do chores to earn the money?

[m0mmaBuck]

My kids get earn money by doing chores. The chores are age appropriate and the pay goes along with what they do. If they need gentle reminding or help, they still get paid because they did their part to contribute to the house/family. If they willfully choose to forego their chores or they only do them after much badgering, they don't get paid (we pro-rate based on work over the course of a week).

 

Many people consider the allowance a weekly given. We consider paying for Scout activites, swim lessons, agym membership (for DSS), and so on a given. Spending cash needs to be earned.

[Peela]

Dh decided to give the kids a decent allowance ($20 a week) so that he could take money off them if they didnt do their chores. So, they dont so much earn the allowance for chores, as just have it as someting held over them as a moivation to do their chores. He will frequently take $5, $10 or even their whole pocket money from them- rather, not give it to them- for misdemeanors :)

[Pamela H in Texas]

Allowance is given as an educational measure and because people are part of the family. Ideally, it's a set amount but we've always allowed life to dictate how much and how often. Unfortunately, real life is that one may not always have the same amount of money.

 

Chores are non-negotiable. Everyone in a family works together. My kids have done more chores than almost any kid mentioned on these boards or that I've seen IRL due to our circumstances (primarily how sick I've been during their lives). Farm kids are generally the exception, beating my kids out.

 

I sometimes wish we lived on a farm. I think there is real benefit in that kind of work. In that case, I would give my kids SOME allowance based on the chores as we'd either be saving certain money or earning certain money (or both) by being self-sufficient or using that as partial (to complete) income.

[Mrs Mungo]

We give our kids an allowance. Our kids must do chores. Chores for the week must be complete before allowance is paid on Saturday. They are never docked allowance for not doing chores because doing chores is non-negotiable.:auto:

[Lucy in Australia]

So, they dont so much earn the allowance for chores, as just have it as someting held over them as a moivation to do their chores.

 

This is us, as well. Strangely enough, it was DH who instigated this system. I was all for giving them pocket money not related to chores. It didn't work. :001_huh:

[chickenpatty]

No allowances here. Occasionally, there are opportunities to earn a little cash. For instance, dh9 and ds12 dug three long trenches for planting asparagus, so dh rewarded them with $. It was a lot of work & they really deserved it. We don't have enough $ to pay them for normal chores.

[elegantlion]

Ds is paid each week when he does chores. We've been doing it this way since he was about 2 or 3. There are set chores that he gets paid for, other chores/household habits he does NOT get paid for.

[radiobrain]

No allowance.... certain house jobs (I hate the word "chores") are non-negotiable, and ones above and beyond those are either greatly appreciated, or have been given as a punishment. ;)

 

However, the boys have a paper route. So they earn $$ every month, from their own labor. One of my kids is more motivated than the other, so he has his own separate route.

 

I also make my kids pay for some "extras" they want to do... like skiing last week. Sometimes I make them pay for half of something. Recently, if we are doing something they don't particularly want to do, I have explained how much it costs, and if they are going to be ungrateful grumps about it, they can pay me back for it.

 

They are very quickly understanding that things cost $$ and working for it takes a while.

 

They also plan their lemonade stand many months in advance. It is quite elaborate, and they really do make a decent amount of $$ (we make really good lemonade!).

 

OTOH, our neighbor gives their kids $20+ per week, AND buy any lego set or video game their kids want, and sometimes I can tell my kids get kind of bummed out. Oh well....

Edited March 10, 2010 by radiobrain
forgot something

[Guest Tricky]

My husband and I spent a lot of time thinking over this issue. We wanted to give the kids money to facilitate responsible money-handling and money-recognition. However, we both wanted the kids to be responsible member of our household and we didn't want them thinking that the only time they needed to do something was for money. So....... The system I came up with has two really simple charts and it's pretty straighforward (the kiddos are 5 and 7, after all).

 

The kids now have a personal chore chart that has 5 weekly house chores on it. (bed, straighten room, wipe down the potty, laundry in drawers, etc.). These chores are requirements each week, and the kids are only rewarded with praise and gold star on their chart.

 

The second chart that hangs in our pantry is the paid-chore chart. This chart is updated weekly with 5 chores that are a bit more involved than the regular household chores. The kids can sign up for these paid chores, and once completed they received a dollar for each one they do. Examples of these paid chores are: dusting the living room, or pulling weeds.

 

The paid chores give the kids a sense of control. They can choose to complete these if they are saving money for something, or if they don't feel like it - they don't have to do it.

 

This system has really worked at our house. We are all very pleased with the results. :)

[Night Elf]

Our allowances are not tied to chores. It's been many years since we tried chore lists. We discovered that each time resulted in a very negative atmosphere in our home. I didn't like what my children were learning about taking care of things and people in our home for money. We gave up having chore lists and started giving a regular allowance.

 

We all get an allowance when my DH gets his paycheck, with DH and I getting a little more than the kids get. The income is shared because we're a family and the children understand it is not, nor can it be, shared equally. They understand expenses since we discuss our finances with them. They see how much the utilities cost and know our budget for things like groceries and eating out. We just consider this our family lifestyle because of how we are raising our children.

 

As someone else said, it works well for us. :)

[paojava]

We give our DS7 $7 a week for allowance. He also does 7 chores a day--for TV time. Once your work is done, you can "play." We keep allowance seperate because we are trying to use the familymint.com website to help him learn to save money for things he wants to get--setting goals, etc.

[spradlin02]

No allowance. They can earn money through special jobs. We're also working through how to handle "chores", but I don't like that term. We're trying to create a sense of responsibility to our home and what needs to be done. We're trying to get the kids to appreciate the work that is done around the house and the ramifications if it doesn't get done.

[Melinda S in TX]

We give an allowance not based on chores. You're part of the family and you share what we have. Dh got his bonus this month. We all got a little extra, and the rest is in the build a house fund.

 

Chores are not optional. Everyone has to work. Just as you share what we have, you share what needs doing. On a farm, that means a whole lot of work.

 

If someone wants extra money for something, they can ask for special chores above what we are already doing. Usually it's something I would have them do anyway, but haven't assigned them yet. They do this in their free time.

 

Melinda

[joannqn]

We are currently doing something like what Tricky has described. We have things that they must do because they are part of the family. These are simple daily things like making their beds, feeding/watering the dog/cats, scooping litter boxes, taking out the recycling, general pick up on a daily basis, putting away their own laundry, and helping to care for their younger siblings. We just started allowing them to earn money by letting them doing other jobs that I would normally do. Many of these jobs go undone because I just don't have the time, and are now getting done with their help. We are using chorewars.com to make it more fun and to keep track of pay.

[bookfiend]

We give an allowance (starting at age 5) to teach how to handle money. Chores are framed as responsibilites that come from being part of the family and living together. Additional money is occasionally earned outside of the home doing neighborhood jobs.

[duckens]

What we do in our household is not the right choice for every family, but it works for us.

 

Currently, dd is 3yo, and I also have C3 come for daycare M-F.

 

Chores: Dd3 helps to clear the table after supper. She also puts away her socks, underwear, and jammies from the laundry basket. Both kids help to pick up toys at the end of the day. This is part of being our family unit. No pay for these chores.

 

We do not have allowance.

 

Each child has a bank.

 

They get paid for:

 

1) 25c for going potty in the toilet. Not for sitting. There must be urine or poop in the potty. For me, it is worth 25c to not have to change diapers/change clothes/clean the mess on the floor. Dd may also opt for 30minutes of TV time.

 

C3, being a boy, sometimes makes a mess (clothing, floor) even while sitting (boys do this sometimes). On these occasions, he only gets 10c.

 

We are also finally moving forward with C3 being potty trained. (His parents are hopelessly unable to help with this, but I hope this can be completed by this fall so he can go to Pre-K or preschool).

 

Paying for potty will end at age 4.

 

2) 5c for each reading lesson. This is their "work." I get paid for my work. Loverboy gets paid for his work. You get paid for your work. If the kids do work, they get paid. Both 3yo are reading and improving every day.

 

I acknowledge that the potty training is getting paid more than the reading, but at this point, the potty training is more important and necessary than the reading.

 

Twenty-two lessons to go.

 

3) 1c for miscellaneous academic things: opposites, counting, reciting name/address/phone, etc. The kids don't seem to connect the pennies with this sort of work at this time, and that's okay.

 

The kids collect their money in their respective banks. They may make purchases when they have enough.

 

Dd has purchased a "Dragon Island" (search amazon) and some goldfish.

 

C3 has purchased a "Dragon Island" (for his grandma's house).

 

With the kids having money, it has cut down on:

 

1) Dd whining about wanting more TV time. If she wants more TV time, she can use her potty money.

 

2) Dd asking for candy at store checkouts or toys at the store. She has her own money, although I wonder if we will modify our family money rules in the future to say, "no junkfood."

 

3) Dd and C3 don't harange me to buy this or that toy. They have their own money, and there are always opportunities to earn more.

 

4) Eventually, I hope the kids learn the connection between working hard/studying hard and financial rewards. Currently, they may be a little young developmentally for this connection.

 

--Laura in Iowa

[LindaOz]

We give an allowance (starting at age 5) to teach how to handle money. Chores are framed as responsibilites that come from being part of the family and living together. .

 

We do this too, but the kids can earn extra money by doing 'extra' jobs that are not on their normal 'this is everyday life' list of things to do.

 

My dd13 is paying off a sewing machine at the moment. She gets her weekly allowance, then she does extra work so she can add more to her payments. I have the sewing machine in the cupboard and she will get it when she has paid it off.

 

I'm finding that having a weekly allowance is really making the kids think more about values, how to save and handle money etc. My older girls have to buy their own personal items as well, so they have to think about how they use and spend their money. They also put money into church and save for presents for each others birthdays. I'm finding it very positive - and paying out less myself for random items here and there. :)

[joannqn]

We give our DS7 $7 a week for allowance. He also does 7 chores a day--for TV time. Once your work is done, you can "play." We keep allowance seperate because we are trying to use the familymint.com website to help him learn to save money for things he wants to get--setting goals, etc.

 

 

Thanks for mentioning this website! I went to check it out, set up a bank, and showed it to my kids. They have goals set up and have made some initial deposits already. They happily turned over any money they had to me for deposit into the bank. (I plan to keep all my kids' money in one consolidated savings account that I manage.)

 

I have it set up so that when I deposit money into their accounts on payday (the day they spend their chore wars gold which corresponds to actual payment in real life), 50% automatically goes to their college goal and 10% automatically goes into their tithe goal. These goals are locked so they can't transfer money out of them. The remaining 40% goes into general spending for them to distribute between their goals as they wish. DD10 is now saving for a pen tablet for her computer and a signature webkinz. DS8 is saving for a caring valley webkinz. Oh, and all transactions, whether it be a deposit, withdrawl, or transfer, has to be approved by mom. :D

 

DD says this website definitely helps her to SEE how much money she has, what she is saving for, how much progress she's made on saving, and how far she has to go. It gives her hope that she'll meet her goals...hope that she didn't have before she had this visual.

 

Between chore wars and family mint, we're set! I'm so excited people shared these websites. Chores wars lets me give the kids a list of jobs available and how much they pay. I don't have to answer "Mom, is there anything I can do to earn money?" anymore because they can check chore wars now. And familymint has them managing their money and saving. Yea!

[Ginevra]

I give them an allowance and they also have chores. The two are not linked. The allowance is not payment for services performed. The allowance is so they have a little money to spend as they wish (and also for things like friend's birthday parties or pet care needs). The chores are because we are a family and we all need to contribute to the household.

[Airmid]

Chores are a family obligation, so we don't pay for that. Allowances are given to teach money management skills and because the children are contributing members of the family.

[Suzanne in ABQ]

My kids do chores as their contribution to the family. They're not paid for regular chores, only for extra jobs (shoveling snow, babysitting sometimes, etc)

 

We give them allowance, but do not tie their allowance to chores. It is tied to attitude, though. Bad attitudes result in docked allowance.

[Rosy]

We pay per chore. Mostly, we do this because we want them to understand the link between work and money. DH doesn't get money because he's part of a family, he gets paid because he does his job (I do respect people who do it differently, though). They have already learned that if they want something, they need to work and save for it, and that Mom and Dad will rarely buy them anything unless it's their b-day or Christmas.

 

We expect that they'll clean up after themselves, so they don't get paid for cleaning their rooms, taking their dishes to the sink/dishwasher, etc. And there are other times when we expect them to help just because they're part of the family. So far, we haven't had issues with them refusing to work unless they get paid for it.

 

They have blank charts and can fill in a square any time they do a job that is worth money. They're expected to tithe, but besides that I don't make any requirements on them as far as saving, giving, etc...I do discourage impulse buying (they need to know what they're getting before we go to the store) and I haven't let them buy food, gum or candy, though I may relent on that. Oldest DD's squares are worth more because she is expected to buy her own clothes and presents for b-day parties. We have "money days" where all 4 kids get paid and we go to Target, these happen when they've all accumulated enough to buy something of value to them (anywhere from $3-10 for the younger kids). Oldest DD can pretty much buy something whenever she wants, as long as we've discussed it first.

[OrganicAnn]

I guess we do/will do all of the above.

 

Small allowance. Goal - No begging for money for candy or toys. Learning responsibility for handling money. Learn decision making skills with money.

 

Normal household/age appropriate chores. Expected. We do not punish lack of chores with withholding allowance.

 

We have a short list of additional opportunities for earning money, so if someone is wanting to earn money to buy something bigger.

 

I read a columnist from Money magazine regarding allowances. She often wrote about kids/teens and money. She recommended a small allowance.

 

I grew up with a mom who believed it was very important to teach kids money skills. She would give us each $5 at the beginning of a weeks vacation/trip. It was up to use to decide how to spend it.

[WiseOwlKnits]

I'll be the oddball.

 

Our kids have chores. We don't pay for them because our belief is that there are benefits and obligations to being part of a family. Doing chores is one of the obligations...the reward for which is that we all get to enjoy having that chore done. For example, one of DD's chores is to wash the dishes. One of DS's chores is to wipe off the table. Because they do their chores, we all get to enjoy having clean dishes and a clean table. DH cleans out the cars every week (vacuums, cleans the windows, etc.). I do the laundry. As result, we all have clean clothes and a clean car to ride in.

 

We also don't give an allowance and they're not given any opportunities to earn money. If they want something, they ask. If DH and/or I feel it's a worthwhile purchase, they get it. If not, they don't. They understand that we (even DH and I) don't always get what we want...and even my just-turned-3-yo can tell you the difference between a want and a need. :)

 

We teach them about money from watching us. The kids want a Wii. We sat down as a family and agreed how much money we would save each week to get a Wii. When the kids want to go get a slush, when they want to go bounce, when they want to do anything, it comes out of the money for our Wii. I ask them which they want more - to do that or to get a Wii. Sometimes they pick the activity, sometimes they pick the Wii. They make the choice and they've seen the consequences for their choices.

 

And we've saved enough money to get a Wii now so as soon as Amazon gets them in stock again, we'll get a Wii. They're not nearly as patient with THAT wait as they were with their wait to save the money. (And neither are DH and I, for that matter!) LOL!