Do your kids get an allowance?

[wildeyed]

How much? Are they required to complete chores to receive the allowance?

I am thinking about starting allowance and a chore chart for my 5 and 7 year olds. I want them to tidy their rooms before bed and then make their beds (maybe no bed making for the 5 year old) and tidy after getting up. This seems like a reasonable expectation for their ages, and it will instill great life-long habits if I can actually follow through with the consequences.

[electron_blue]

1. I tried it last year, but will wait.

I have a child in between the ages of your kids. I tried instituting an allowance with a discussion about spending, saving, charity and disconnected it from chores. She was just going to get it to learn how to handle it. Well, the talk went well, but then she disappeared with 2 of her 3 dollars. Come to find out she "weathered" 2 of the dollars so they would look worthy of keeping in a pirate treasure chest! She had taken some scissors to the paper money and cut them on the edges to make them look old enough for her pirates. Oh my. She is still clearly only interested in fantasy money. I'm waiting until she shows more interest in buying things, what things cost, are worth. So far, she is not bitten by the "buy me" bug. Once that bites, I'll probably bring the allowance back.

I don't like tying it to chores, because I expect her to do them anyway. I know my kid, if I tied $ to chores, she'd be totally willing to do without the money to skip the chores. When she gets older, I might give extra opportunities to earn money above and beyond her normal chores, but I do think it's important for kids to just know that there are certain responsibilities that don't go away. Like picking up after yourself.

What are you trying with your kids?

[wildeyed]

3. My older is very interested in money.

She thinks about how much things cost and if they are worth it to buy. The younger is only interested in money insofar as it advances his mission to acquire a Wii. Beyond that, he is not interested and is easily parted from his money by his wiley older sib. She recently got him to go in 1/2 on a Webkinz he had no interest in playing with. I need to keep an eye on that behavior. Bilking gullible younger siblings is probably not a character building activity.

Currently we have a Saturday box. Toys that are left out get put into the Saturday box. On Saturday the toys are returned. Toys that end up in the Saturday box too often get donated. I figure that if they aren't interested enough in the toy to pick it up several weeks in a row, they probably don't really need it.

The problem is, we are inconsistent in applying this system. At first we did a room check every night. Now it is sporadic, unusually when things are really out of control. Then things get thrown into drawers and closets willy-nilly with no real organization. I guess we should try going back to a nightly room check. I can give the older child an allowance separately, and then maybe pay her additional for doing extra jobs.

[YankeyMCC]

2. My 11 year old does

We tried a couple of times when he was younger but it never stuck, mainly because we never put any structure around it. It seems to be working pretty well now.

He gets a base allowance of $3 for doing the minimum required chores, tidy his room, take down his laundry and trash.

Then he gets extra for optional items like helping me with yard work or shoveling (depending on the season), helping or making dinner (he likes to cook), teaching me a new phrase in spanish (trying to encourage him to work at learning that language), cleaning one of the bathrooms.

[tigereye]

4. I'm torn between the "allowance with strings" and "allowance with no strings"

concepts


i think kids should do chores - but I am not sure an allowance should be tied to chores per se.

My son is 12 and he has to mow the lawn, take out the garbage and clean his room periodically ;) On edit he shovels the walk and washes and cleans the cars for some extra money.




My husband and I thought an allowance should be simply part of his experience, but he still has to do chores in general.