Allowance

I feel like this is going to sound like a "Dear Abby, please tell me who is right. A steak dinner is riding on what you say." I'm kidding a little.

DH and I are on the same page in thinking that giving Bryn a weekly allowance -- $1 -- is appropriate for a 6 year old. I'm sure that could be another topic of dicussion.

Speaking of another topic of discussion, handling this new-found wealth is also an issue. She found $10 bills twice this summer. Once in the street and once in a parking lot without a soul around to claim them. That and six teeth lost over 4 months and she has a nice stash of cash. She spent her own money for the book fair this week. I think I'm going to try the spend/save/share containers to help her divy it up and make decisions about spending.

Anyway....we are not on the same page about how the allowance is earned. I say this is her share of the family fortune ( ) and she gets it no matter what unless, say she owes us for something. We haven't had that as an issue yet. I also think that this is a good, safe opportunity to learn how to handle money when we can give her some oversight more than payment for chores.

DH thinks it should be linked to chores, as in, you do your chores and get your allowance. This comes up at least once a week when we have to ask her more than once to set the table with him reminding her that she needs to do it to get her allowance. Granted, it is convenient and motivates her but I think she should do her jobs without a carrot because they are part of her responsibilities.

Thoughts?

[pstone]

Interesting. I don't have to think about this quite yet....but...

What do you and others that have experince think of both.

Base allowance + bonus for chores?

[MissCrabette]

I don't even have the kids this would apply to but I did think about the various allowance options in the past.

Although you'd think that Peter's idea is the best of both worlds, it still doesn't do away with the "carrot" that Nellie mentioned. While it would be nice for a child to do his or her chores because they're a responsability that must be taken and because it makes him/her a part of the family, I have to admit that too young a child may not even understand that notion yet. In that case it may be easier to give the chore bonus to the child. I don't even know what I'll end up doing because I'm still obviously very undecided.

[mommax3]

I agree with you Nellie (of course)! Work is a part of life and unless I start getting a bonus for doing the stuff I do around here, my boys will have things that they are expected to do just because.

Right now, my oldest son is wanting to raise some money to support the education of some students in Liberia. I have told him that if he wants to ask me for some "extra" jobs, I will pay him over and above his allowance. So far he hasn't asked for the jobs..... so we'll see how this turns out.

Sally

[MrsC]

No kids here yet either but it is something I've thought about. I think that there should be regular chores that he/she has to do without incentives. However, I think it's important to show the value of money. Maybe you could find an extra chore for them to do and say "if you do this, you get an allowance".

Growing up, we always had chores to do but if we wanted some extra money, we would have to earn it by doing an extra chore. I think this was an excellent way of doing it. It teaches that you have to work for your money.