This post has been brewing in my mind for A LONG time now. I pinned a post about kids receiving an allowance a long time ago, and that post has been repined more than any other pin I’ve ever pinned. It is filled with many VALID points. I’m not going to say that this author is entirely wrong for wanting to give her kids an allowance. However, I wasn’t raised up getting an allowance, and it never harmed me. The lack of a contribution also didn’t cause me to NOT do my chores.
The first thing she pointed out was that kids should earn an allowance to learn how to spend money properly. I think all kids should know the value of money and how hard it is actually to make a pretty penny. Hence, why our children are taught how to manage money in a checking account and are able to figure pretty much out what they have to make in order to get the things they long for.
If you agree with our logic at all, please pin this image. Thank you.
They EARN a Paycheck
My kids make money for doing things BEYOND their routine chores. For an example, if they decide to help their grandparents do things for the company business or they decide to be my virtual assistants, things that I consider to be REAL actual jobs, then they will get paid an HOURLY wage for the work they do. If they goof off, then they don’t get a dime from me. I have literally FIRED my kids from working with me for months on end. They MISSED their jobs and their paychecks so much they BEGGED me to rehire them.
Since they are earning their “own paychecks” (I use that term very loosely because we are not child labors, even though it may sound that way!), they have the ability to earn the things they want to buy. I don’t have to worry about going over our budget or spending money that wasn’t planned on to give them a luxury item they may want. They are in no way forced to work for the family companies. They have the OPTION to do it for extra spending money to spend as they choose.
They Live Here Too
A big part of the reason why I don’t give them an allowance for doing chores around the house is because THEY HELP MAKE THE MESS! They live in our home just as much as everyone else does. They use the clothes that need cleaning. They eat the food that needs to be cooked. They use the dishes that need cleaning. They need to understand that those things don’t get cooked or cleaned on their own. When they get their own homes, I want them to know how to do these things! I want them to care about maintaining a home worth living in.
Skills for Living
It also gives them many other skills too. They learn the value of honoring their parents by doing things knowing they aren’t getting anything in return except for a thank you. They are learning to serve others. (Which a successful business person will tell you, when you learn to serve others first then your business will grow by leaps and bounds!) They also learn the value of teamwork because when they view ALL chores as a family job that needs to be done they aren’t worried about who’s getting paid for what tasks. The tasks at hand get DONE, and often times you can see ALL three of my kids doing dishes together and folding clothes together.
They Learn How to Manage Their Time
Our system may not work for your household, but it does work for us because we install in the kids’ minds that they are going to have to work for a living one day. They learn that they have to manage their days. That is one of the reasons why I’m glad that we homeschool our kids because they get to learn what LIFE is really like. They aren’t stuck in a classroom 8-3PM having someone else dictate what and how they learn.
They get to see and feel the blood and sweat of owning your own company. We have our family business that we run and we also have this blog family business that we also run. They get to see where physical and mental skills can take them. They are learning many aspects of both of our businesses because we don’t keep anything from them. They are right there for our business discussions. The neat thing is they come up with some really brilliant ideas sometimes that make an enormous impact on our success.
I’d love to hear your input on the whole allowance debate. What are your thoughts on it?
The idea of earning the paycheck is brilliant. And that will also show us how to treasure the hard-earned money.
I agree completely. Especially when you have to work like you normally would in a job to earn money.
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That’s a great idea! I like that they can earn money while helping you. I make my daughter do chores and she earns stars on an IPad app. She redeems her stars for things like tv, ipad, things like that! Was planning on doing a post about it sometime!
Sounds like you a system that works for you. 🙂 It is a post worth sharing. Parents always seem to be hunting for ways to get their kids motivated to help them.
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So many good points here. We are currently struggling with finidng time for my son to earn money. I swear, if I had not had PPD I would have found some support and homeschooled full-time.
Pam
I’m glad that you feel there are some really good points in this post. I hope that you can find the support you need so that you can homeschool your kids.
Thank you for your support and I hope to see you again soon.
Great post and I wholeheartedly agree with you. We never gave our kids an allowance either. We did have them do chores of course, but that was part of the responsibility of living here. Their dad and I don’t get paid for what we do around the house and so we didn’t pay them either.
We felt that chores taught a work ethic, diligence and perseverance. We also had them help out around the church or help at their grandparents’ house too because we wanted them to learn the gift of service, just as you did with yours.
We also gave them extra things that they could do if they wanted to make money. They learned to manage money by managing the money they received for birthdays, Christmas, or extra chores. We had them set aside some money for savings, tithe some, and then the remainder they could spend.
I’m glad to know that you share our logic and did similar things with your kids. It’s refreshing to hear.
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This is a brilliant idea Crystal whose time has come to teach real-world rewards in this hard to make a living economy we are all striving to live in.
I’m glad you like our idea of how we handle teaching the kids about money.
I didn’t get an allowance when I was growing up, but my husband did. So far, we haven’t given our kids money unless they earn it. It’s worked well. You have some great advice! Thanks for sharing!
I’m glad that you feel this is some sage advice. I am glad that it’s working well for you too.
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“They live here, too.”
Exactly. The thing is, once you grow up, these are things you have to do anyway and no one is going to pay you for them. So why raise our kids with expectations that ALL of the work they do should be compensated? Sometimes you have to do free work (grad school, internships, volunteer work, etc.) in order to get ahead. My parents always *promised* allowances that never came. But the message they sent us was clear–no work is worth doing if you’re not getting paid. Now I’m much older and I realize that isn’t true. And I wonder how much better off I would have been if I had realized that sooner.
I’m so glad that you agree with me. I find that many parents in our society today feel like they have to “bribe” their kids to do things, and it concerns me a lot.
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You make some great points here. We’ve gone back and forth on allowance because I do want my kids to learn how to handle money. However, I don’t want to pay them to clean up after themselves! We have settled on basic routine chores that get done daily and then I offer odd jobs that they can do if they want to earn money. Last week I offered to pay them to help me deep clean the kitchen. I told them upfront that the job was worth $3 to me. I told them that I wasn’t going to nag or keep after them. If I ‘fired’ them, they would get no money for the work they had done up to that point. My oldest got $4 because she had done such a nice job. My middle got the $3 we agreed upon and my youngest got a handful of dimes that made him happy (I took the easy way on that one!)
Sounds to me like you’re doing pretty the same thing we’re doing here. All extra things they do, we give them something special for doing it.
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I had to come over and read the post and totally understand what you mean. I think if works then it’s the best solution for you and your kids. In the end, if we raise self-sufficient, caring, and responsible adults, we did our job!
I am glad you took the time to come check out my post. I didn’t want to make you think that your opinion didn’t matter to me because I do firmly believe that everyone is entitled to their own opinions. There is NO right or wrong way to raise kids as long as we do exactly what you stated in your last sentence.
Thank you for commenting.
Such a great post Crystal! I love the idea of earning a paycheck. Really teaches them about real life. Thanks for sharing.
I’m glad you liked this viewpoint. I do feel that we need to provide our kids with as many real life experiences as we can safely give them.
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