Do you pay your Child to do chores around the house?
Moms View Message Board: Parenting Discussion: Archive January-June 2005:
Do you pay your Child to do chores around the house?
If you do how much do you give them????? We have a 10yr DSD and she is starting to do chores...her DSS are all working so she has her turn at the chores....Sisters say she will be out in the driveway selling lemonade soon so she wont have to do chores!!!
Does your child get an allowance??? Is it tied to doing the chores??
Don't really understand why this is an anonymous post. My boys do get an allowance and do have specific responsibilities and chores around the house, but allowance isn't dependent on the chores. Every member in the family has specific chores that have to be done daily and weekly and every gets weekly allowance but is is because we all contribute to the household and we all share in the finances. They are not paid to contribute to the family because they should be doing that anyway.
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Anyone living in my house has to share in the chores of keeping that house liveable. It has nothing to do with money. It worked that way when my sons were chldren and living at home and it works that way while my 37 year old is living with me (temporary, of course). He works, I work, and we both do chores.
If your DSSs are working and in school, so what. Women who have paycheck jobs still come home and do their non-paycheck jobs. The laundry, dishes and pickup-put-away don't care if you get a paycheck or not, and if they are living in the house they are contributing to creating the necessity for the chores.
If they are working full time and not in school, they should still be helping with the chores. And they should be paying something towards rent/food/etc. If they are still in school and this is a summer job, they should be required to save a significant portion of their earnings for spending money for the next school year or college, and should be helping to clean up the messes they help make.
I have never understood paying children for ordinary chores. Special, extraordinary tasks, yes, but not the ordinary chores of keeping up with the ordinary messes made by living in a house. Allowances, imo, should NOT be tied to chores. Paying children for doing chores gets you into exactly what you have with your DSS - they don't need the money so they don't do the chores, and they don't get the connection between being part of a family and household and sharing in the work as well as the benefits.
And, I second Karen in reminding you of the purpose of the anonymous function. While this is often a frustrating topic, it doesn't rise to the "personal, sensitive nature" for which the anonymous feature is intended. If you are new to this board, you may not be aware of this guideline. If you are not new, you still might not have had a reason to be aware of it before.
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For normal chores we do not pay the kids money. Now, if they do something beyond their normal chores, then I will pay. For example,sometimes I dont have time clean up the babies toys, or maybe Im in the middle of laundry. My almost 6 yr will clean up the babies toys for a quarter LOL.. not much, she doesnt care.
My husband has been giving my son some money or mowing the grass. Sometimes I give my son money for cleaning out the van, not much just a dollar..So if its not a regular chore, I do pay.
No, my DD won't get an allowance. She lives in this house and she should contribute to keeping it clean. If she wants to earn money, she can ask to do extra chores when the time comes. We live in a more affluent area, so I really need to watch money issues with her. She will already make comments like "Daddy has cash. Oh, my Dad has cash, you can have some." We want to teach her about saving money and such, but I don't want her to have a piggy bank full of money for things she should do anyway. JMHO.
BTW-we now tell her that her jobs are to help her Mom and Dad and to be respectful, to be safe, and to listen.
It depends for us. WE have done allowances in the past. I have tied them to chores, not 1 dollar for cleaning toilets. But this is your list of chores, this is your allowance, both are for being part of the family, but if you don't do chores, you don't get allowance.
We kind of gave up on the allowance system, it got to be too much money and not enough impact. I read somewhere a good number is a dollar per year per week. So my 11 year old would get 44 a a month. We cut that in half. But things are expensive and it is hard to give them enough money in allowances to reasonably save for what they want.
the best system I came up with is "moms movie bucks". I printed my own money and have a list of special chores, each one with a cash value. Like windexing the glass table is 2 bucks. These are only redemable by me for movies. So if they have 2 dollars we can go to the movie (we have a theater that is all it cost *S*), but they don't get popcorn. I guess I could do this with real money, but I like the control more. The goal is specific, so they want to go to madagascar this week, they will pull out the big list. I have all the chores and how much they are worth, plus the cost. Like ticket to movies is $2, a kids pack is 4. A coke is 2 and popcorn is 3. So they can save what they want. I have also seen my oldest two really work together, spliting their popcorn and drink and a candy.
My kids do get an allowance and they do have chores, but they are not tied together. They have chores because they are members of this household and must contribute. They get an allowance so they can learn how to be responsible with money. Kids can't learn to be responsible with money until they are irresponsible with it. I would rather they learn that lesson when they are young and the pricetag is lower. I love hearing the words "This toy is junk. I wasted my money!" come out of the mouth of my seven year old. He is thinking about the choices he made.
I do, like others have stated, pay for extra chores. Sometimes my boys want to raise money for something in particular. Last week the seven year old asked if he could do three jobs for $3.00. He vacuumed the living room, cleaned a bathroom and did some laundry. It was a huge help to me since I didn't have to do those jobs and he was happy to have money to spend at the school's book fair.
At my house, you don't get money for expected chores. That is just part of being in a family, but I do have a chore jar with extra chores in it like cleaning out the van, wiping down walls, washing baseboards, etc. These are 25 cents a piece or so. If I feel they do an exceptional job, they can get more.
I don't pay my children an allowance either. Our rules are the same as everyone elses it seems. Extra's get you cash.. And loans/advances of money are paid off with sweat.. LOL
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