Its here, the moments Moms dread. Your little girl learned a new word in school today. It’s not a good word. It is one of those words that will haunt you until well; she’s 5, so the next 13 years or even longer. A word you hoped she wouldn’t learn until at least kindergarten, yet here it is, right in the middle of your Sunday dinner; allowance. You don’t know whether to ignore her completely or to wash out her mouth with soap; aw heck, you knew it was coming anyway.
The amount of the allowance is a big decision for parents because it feels like you are putting a dollar amount on your child’s day to day worth. Many parents choose not to do allowance all together, but in my opinion that doesn’t teach the child the value of a dollar either. But then again, what financial crisis is little Jenny going to get herself into anyway.
Some parents give the child a weekly allowance equal to their age, this may work for you and it does teach the value of a dollar and good saving and spending habits at a young age, but it doesn’t teach anything about the value and satisfaction of work and getting a job done properly. You work hard for your income, why shouldn’t your offspring be made to earn that much needed allowance.
One thing you should take into consideration when evaluating the allowance question is planning. What does your child plan to do with the money they are getting? More importantly, what do they plan to do to earn it? Some parents don’t pay a flat rate when their pint sized bill collector comes to call.
Their answer is to pay by the job, for example, Jimmy cleans up the toys that usually lay strewn about the living room, Good Job, Lad, here’s a quarter. Or, little Suzy takes the initiative to sweep the kitchen, Good Show, Little Lady, Here’s a dime. This system teaches children that they get awarded money not just for being there and being cute but also for being a useful member of the household. Later this life lesson can translate into becoming a useful member of the community and workforce.
Later on children are given a set number of chores and paid accordingly, they get a weekly ‘paycheck’ as long as, say, the dishes are done and the driveway swept. This being said, by this age children should be responsible for keeping up with their own spaces and perhaps their own laundry too. So if the driveway is swept but teenage slob, Melvin, didn’t take a snow shovel to his bedroom, no paycheck, tell him to go refer to human resources (Dad), because his attentiveness to his duties have been out of line.
There are no rules for this, you are the parent, don’t let the “but all the other kids get $20” sway you, you are master of your household, and you shouldn’t care if they get a 20 with a bright red bow, Melvin barely earned his $10.50. This being said, at a young age you should start acclimating the child to the idea of the household being a community that needs everyone’s helping hands to keep things running smoothly, not only will this keep you from shouldering all of the burden of household chores, it will give your child a sense of pride in a job well done.
Author Resource:
"Your Money Matters" Carl Hampton, author of "From Credit Despair To Credit Millionaire" http://CarlHampton.com
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