OT question......allowances

[christyg]

Hi! I have an off topic question for you. My husband and I are trying to decide on whether or not to give our kiddos an allowance each week. We have a daughter who will be 7 in Sept and a son who will be 5 in Oct. My questions are: 1) Do you give your children an allowance each week?, 2) Is the allowance tied to any of their chores?, and 3) How much do you give them? Just looking for some ideas. Thanks so much for all of your help!!

Christy

[MamaPajama]

Hi! I have an off topic question for you. My husband and I are trying to decide on whether or not to give our kiddos an allowance each week. We have a daughter who will be 7 in Sept and a son who will be 5 in Oct. My questions are: 1) Do you give your children an allowance each week?, 2) Is the allowance tied to any of their chores?, and 3) How much do you give them? Just looking for some ideas. Thanks so much for all of your help!!

Christy

We have given our kids an allowance, but we've never decided on an amount. We started out giving them $1/week for each year of their age, but as you can imagine it added up fast! I'm thinking about starting over with maybe 25 cents/week for each year of their age beginning when they turn 3. We do not give money for chores or for educational accomplishments. We will give them a little something extra if they do something "above and beyond" without being asked, but we want them to understand that chores are just what's expected of each member of the household to help things run smoothly.

[Sue G in PA]

We have always given our children an allowance based on chores. We explain that Daddy gets paid based on the work that he does and they will as well. All our children have chores which rotate quarterly. I never liked the idea of rotating weekly b/c 1. it was too much work for me and 2. it never gave them a chance to really "own" the chore. We started out with a set amount and then somebody gave us the idea of 50 cents per year of their age. My children are paid when Daddy gets paid...2x per month. For the school year coming up, we have changed things up a bit. I read about this system in a book recently. The child's allowance is based up a point system. Each day, the child has the opportunity to earn 4 points (for weekly chores, daily chores, schoolwork completed w/ good attitude and bedtime routine). You could choose your own, obviously. Each point is worth a pre-determined amount of money based upon age (ages 4-6 is 5cents/pt, ages 7-9 is 10cents/pt, ages 10-12 is 15cents/pt, ages 13-15 is 20cents/pt). Each day the child will check off the points earned for that day. On payday, a parent will check the "allowance card" and sign off on it, count the number of points earned and give the appropriate amount of allowance. I made little index card sized cards with a table showing the 4 possible points per day and 2 weeks along the top. Does that make sense? On the flip-side of the card is a chart of each child's chores (daily and weekly). I'm hoping this will motivate my not-so-motivated children to do their work and have a good attitude. There are also 10 spaces for "extra" points and 20 spaces for "demerits" (pre-determined by parents). I hope this makes sense. i forget the book that this system was in. Something about saving money or being frugal...not sure.

[south5]

We started to do allowances but quit when it became the whole focus. They would race to do each other's chores hoping to get more than their share. If I asked them to do something not on the chore chart my oldest would ask how much I was going to pay him. They had also started asking for advances in their allowance and would talk about their money before they received it. Now, it is required and expected to do chores for free. I told my oldest that we are a family and it takes everybody to make things run smoothly. We do however give money for above and beyond things. For example, my husband chopped down a tree that had died and my oldest had to drag the pieces into the woods behind our house. It took them all day, and we felt that he had earned $5 for helping his dad with something hard. My middle son recently gave his sister his candy, my mom had bought the boys some candy for a treat and did not get dd2 anything. Since he willingly and sweetly gave up his candy for his sister, we felt he deserved $1 to buy another or to save.

[girlboygirlboy]

We give allowances, but they are not tied to chores unless they are something out of the ordinary(major weed pulling project, cleaning out the garage, etc). Their regular chores are just what they do to serve our family because they are part of the family. For us, allowances are just a tool to help our children learn how to handle money - to have the joy of tithing/giving, learning to save, learning to look for deals, etc. My younger children get 1/2 their age per month and they have to tithe 10% and save 10%. My oldest(almost 11) will be getting a larger sum starting this fall that we haven't quite determined(I'm still trying to iron it all out). She will be responsible for tithing and saving AND buying her own toiletries(toothpaste, hair products, etc), gifts for her friends' birthdays or coaches gifts and family christmas presents, and some of her clothing. We hope to increase it each year so that she will be completely responsible for her own purchases before going off to college(never exceeding an amount that she couldn't make in a job - don't want to give her an incentive to never work:). HTH some...

[LeAnna]

We don't give our children allowances, but instead they earn tickets for chores, behavior and obedience. They can then turn them in for things like treasure box, dippy dots, picking a favorite meal, mom doing their chores for one day, staying up at bedtime a 1/2 hour later, etc.
They also get tickets taken away for bad behavior, disobedience, etc. On Saturday, our family fun night, the kids can count up their tickets and turn them in their prizes.
My kids are 5, 6, and 7 and this works great for them!!

LeAnna

[tjswaine]

We give our sons (7 & 5) $4.00 per week. They each have a small box and inside are three envelopes, labeled "Give", "Save", and "Spend". They put one dollar in both the "Give" and "Save" and two dollars in the "Spend". The "Give" envelope is used for tithing, missions, etc. and the "Save" is for vacations, holidays, etc. The "Spend" envelope is for them to do with as they please, but they must ok it with Mom and Dad first. They both love lego, so that is usually where their money goes. They have learned (the hard way) that buying toys at a "Dollar store" is not wise!
They have a chore chart, but our emphasis is not "doing chores for money". We ask them to help participate in the household chores to learn responsibility, develop good work ethics, etc. I guess their allowance is to help show them a bit about managing money.

[Mom2Monkeys]

We've thought about an allowance. We won't be tieing it to their chores as that is just something we do as being a member of the family. Allowance won't be earned, but can be lost. For instance, if a child has a certain chore and has been given ample time to accomplish that chore and hasn't, then I may ask another siblings to do it. The child whose chore it was originally now owes payment to the child that did it for them! It may be 10 cents or maybe 25 cents, depending on the chore. I'm also thinking we may take a nickle away everytime mom has to come behind them to do something for them (that they KNOW to do) such as closing all their dresser drawers, flushing the toilet, putting their dirty clothes in the basket for them (not just simple occasional things, but things that have become bad habits). So this could be used also for other bad habits, like saying certain words, tattling, etc. so long as it's not a situation where the heart of the matter is overlooked. I wouldn't use this money idea for something like lying or direct disobedience (Love Wise Words for Moms for this heart probing. You can read about that on my blog!)
I want to give them an allowance to teach them good stewardship though. Not give it to them to go spend it quickly on "junk" like candy and cheap toys each week. I won't make them give to others or make them save it forever, but I won't allow them to waste it.

I hope that makes sense! Forgive my foggy brained spelling. LOL