Allowance for kids (weigh, games, wife, appropriate)

[Hoosier]

My wife and I have decided to begin giving the kids allowance on a weekly basis and need some input. How much do you give a child who is five, and a child who is nine? The nine year old told us she knows kids who get anywhere from $5 to $10 a week. I remember getting 50 cents a week in the 70s, and that was good! What is reasonable to give? We are giving them money to teach responsibility, saving, giving and spending on themselves. Any constructive input would be greatly appreciated.

[pammybear]

With my 8 yr. old, she gets $6.00 a week if she finishes everything on her list by Sunday afternoon. She has to make her bed each day, bring her trash out 2x a week, her laundry out 2x a week, put away her clean clothes 2x a week, practice her piano each day and feed the dog. (I'm a little lenient on the dog thing if she's running late for school!) She also has to wipe down her bathroom with clorox wipes 2x a week and some other small chores. Out of her $6, at least $1 has to go to the bank (they do a banking activity at school) and she usually puts in more than $1 especially since she has been saving her allowance. I would give her deductions if she didn't finish her list but so far so good (we've been doing it about 2 months) but I do remind her also to make sure she takes a look at her list especially toward the weekend! Hope that helps! Oh, you can buy fun chore lists at school supply stores or just make your own! Good Luck!

Pam

[20yrsinBranson]

My thoughts go along with Pammybears that allowances should be compensation for work/chores done around the house. Nobody should get money for just being there. It instills the wrong kind of values - that they are "entitled" to something for nothing.

There are lots of chores a 5 year old can do to earn his/her money.

20yrsinBranson

[mommytotwo]

I just started an allowance with my son (7 yrs old) because they are doing banking at his school. I want him to be able to save money that he earned, not that we just give him (we have other accts for that purpose)

He will be getting $5 per week.

He has to:

**put his dirty laundry in the basket
**collect the wastebaskets from around the house to be emptied
**take the trash out with his father on trash night
**bring the recycle barrel back in the next day
**set his sister's toothbrush up each night (she's too small to put the toothpaste on)
**bring the shoes that have accumulated in the front hall over the course of the week upstairs to the appropriate bedrooms on Friday
**put his dirty dishes in the sink after each meal
**a small misc. job for me each day, if needed
**one small job for his dad each week, if needed


He was given a "moonjar" by the bank when we opened his account. It is a cardboard bank with three sections, save, spend, and donate. He decided that he will put $2 into save and spend, and $1 in donate each week. You write the percentages on top of the bank to remind the kid how much to put in each section. He obviously doesn't understand percentages yet, and I didn't want to have to deal w/paying him with change, so we just figured out how to divide the $5.

We just started this midweek last week. He seems to be getting all the little jobs done, except for the toothpaste for his sister one, and I need to "pay" him tomorrow.

Maybe I'll update this in a few weeks after we see how it goes.

P.s. moonjar has a website, I think, if you are interested. I don't know how much they charge, but ......holy cow, I just googled moonjar and they are charging $7.95 each plus who-knows-how-much for shipping and handling. You could accomplish the same thing w/three seperate recepticles for savings. Or they have a tin version for $25, which I would def. buy before spending $8 on the paper one which is way too flimsy to charge $8 for. Like I said, we got it free from the bank. anyhow, you get the idea......

[catonc]

My kids get $.50 for every year old they are. So my 16 y/o gets $8.00/week, my 8 y/o gets $4.00/week and my 6 y/o gets $3.00/week. They can earn more by picking up extra jobs around the house. I do NOT pay them for their chores as I expect them to help out around the house and contribute because they are part of the family. Plus I found that by paying them for their chores if they decided they didn't need the money for anything right now, then they didn't care if their chores got done or not. To me, school is my kids job. Chores are not. Just like I have a job that I get paid for but I don't get paid for doing things around the house. JMO.

[EJRuek]

Originally Posted by 20yrsinBranson

My thoughts go along with Pammybears that allowances should be compensation for work/chores done around the house. Nobody should get money for just being there. It instills the wrong kind of values - that they are "entitled" to something for nothing.

There are lots of chores a 5 year old can do to earn his/her money.

20yrsinBranson

I agree.

[cdc3217]

Originally Posted by catonc

My kids get $.50 for every year old they are. So my 16 y/o gets $8.00/week, my 8 y/o gets $4.00/week and my 6 y/o gets $3.00/week. They can earn more by picking up extra jobs around the house. I do NOT pay them for their chores as I expect them to help out around the house and contribute because they are part of the family. Plus I found that by paying them for their chores if they decided they didn't need the money for anything right now, then they didn't care if their chores got done or not. To me, school is my kids job. Chores are not. Just like I have a job that I get paid for but I don't get paid for doing things around the house. JMO.

We have almost exactly the same system! This works well for us, as the kids can't opt out of chores if they want to skip allowance. The other thing I do is if one of them has misbehaved significantly, instead of giving them their allowance as cash I will put it in their savings account instead. Hopefully this isn't giving them some weird behavior complex. Its kind of like a swear jar, I guess.

[momtothree]

I have an three year old, eight year old and 15 year old.

I don't give allowance based on chores as this is expected as part of the household. I don't get "paid" for doing the stuff I do and neither do they. The chores I have them directly impacts them. ie, cleaning their bathroom and maintaining their rooms. Other chores are taking out garbage, emptying out dishwasher etc. They usually are done in about ten minutes to do their daily chores.

I give the eight year old $5 weekly, $10 for the 15 year old and $1 for the three year old as she complains about wanting her own money. Only way they don't get the money is if they were grounded. When report cards come out, I also give them money for each A they get. (obviousely the three year doesn't get grounded, the other two is whom I meant)

15 year old spends all his money within a day but my daughter is awesome about saving. She saved her holiday money and weekly allowance for a brand new DS and 2 games all at once. Took her awhile but she did it and was really proud. She is now saving her money for something big but she isn't sure for what yet. She is "waiting" for that new big thing to come out. LOL

[EJRuek]

I think the point of paying them to do certain chores is not so much for the usual, as for the unusual -- "the above and beyond" stuff. I weigh in on both sides of this: I don't believe in rewarding for daily, weekly, monthly, and seasonal life necessities, but for stuff that is "unusual" like offering to paint the fence, taking over mowing the lawn for the summer -- anything they offer to do above and beyond the normal family expectations.

Paying for good grades carries its own onus if one child gets 'A's and another struggles. Resentment because of "not getting it" can lead to discouragement when another child "gets it." On the other hand, rewarding both achievement and effort works.

Maybe instead of rewarding them with money, you can reward them with a credit and demerit system and they can "draw" on their accounts when they want money for something.

[pammybear]

I posted on another thread about my frustration with the spelling tests and I asked my dd if she did well on the test, what kind of reward would she want? (at school they get a few minutes extra recess) and she said she wanted me to bring her lunch from burger king! So I told her I would do that if she got 100% and lo and behold she did so I she got her lunch! (I'm sure it was very lukewarm by the time she got it though!) We'll see what happens this week!

Pam