Chores and Allowance – Part I

Children all have wants and needs.  While parents can meet most of their children’s needs, it’s challenging and sometimes not advisable to meet all their wants.  That’s where allowance comes in.  The first time I started thinking about allowance was when my older daughter was 4 years old.  Even though she never threw a tamper tantrum over a toy when we were shopping in the store, I could see how much she wanted this sparkling object or that little trinket.  We provide for our children with everything they need but sometimes they want something extra, just for fun, like us adults.  Right around that time, a book came to my attention.  It’s called, “Money doesn’t Grow on Trees” by Neale S. Godfrey.  She has lots of good ideas on teaching children money concepts, from working for pay, budgeting, banking to investment.  Due to the young age of my children at the time, I only adopted her “working for pay” approach and the “4-jar budget system”.   

 

Before I explain the procedure for “working for pay”, I want to stress that there are things that children need to do without being paid.  They are called “Citizen of the Household Chores” in the book.  Such chores are like picking up toys, putting away their belongings, doing their homework, and studying for tests.  I consider them as their personal responsibilities.  The same goes with washing the dishes or wiping the countertop if they want to bake or cook something in the kitchen, because they are expected to tidy up a space after they use it.  The only jobs that they get paid to do are the recurrent chores that they do for the whole family, such as washing dishes or wiping tables after dinner, taking out garbage, or mopping the floor.

 

My older daughter’s first job was to check all the trashcans around the house, tie it up if it is full, bring the tied up bag to the door and put a clean bag in the can.  I showed her what it meant to be a filled bag and how to place a new bag in the trashcan (she already knew how to tie up the plastic bags).  When she got older and my younger daughter needed a job, I taught her how to wash dishes and she got a little raise to wash dinner dishes 5 nights a week.  My younger one worked the trashcan duty for a while but she kept complaining about the job and often waited until the trash came tumbling out of the trashcan.  Finally, we both couldn’t take it anymore and then she switched to wiping tables as well as the stove top 5 nights per week.

 

Occasionally, we will give them some opportunities to earn extra money if they ask for it.  We will let them know what the work entails and the amount of money they will get beforehand.  They can decide whether to take it or not.  I will talk about the payday and the “4-jar budget system” in my next blog.