OT - need ideas for kids allowance?

[gemjoy]

We would like to start having our children (DD is 10, DS is 11) "earn" their allowance by giving them a little responsability around the house. Instead of just giving them a "token" allowance at the end of the week They're great kids and always glad to help out when they are asked, however, I'd like to give them each just a few weekly chores that they can be responsible for on a regular basis... and bump the $ a little since they are getting a little older and starting to want their own spending money for this and that. I would love to hear what advice and ideas any of you have for me....

 

[crisi]

We are lousy allowance givers. So here is what we do.

We use a discipline ladder. Privledged (like watching TV or playing outside) are based on where you are on the ladder. If you are naughty, you are moved down, if you help out, you are moved up. At the very top of the ladder, we give out money if you help more. Most of the time our kids are working off their minor transgressions and don't get money for helping out (we give a quarter if they take out the trash, for instance - a good room cleaning is worth a buck).

We also give the kids a $5 short term and $5 long term allowance. Short term is theirs to blow, long term we get veto power over. We don't hand out cash, cause we are really bad at having it, and the kids are bad at keeping it. We keep an account book and the kids can withdraw from the bank of Mom and Dad (which may involve a trip to Wells Fargo).

 

[puffkin]

I never got a true allowance, and I helped out around the house. My mom did have an interesting method though.....

ON a Monday morning she gave my brother and I each $20. That was our lunch money for the week and we could use it however we wanted. Lunch was $1.35 at that time, so even if we bought hot lunch everday, we still had at least $10 leftover. My brother usually bought double lunches, so he usually had a lot less left than me because I packed usually. I used the $20 to go out on the weekends.

My parents didn't feel that they needed to "pay" us to do chores we already should be doing to help out. This was my mom's way of giving us a little pocket money and it taught good money handling skills.

I have a few years to worry about the whole allowance thing with my son though

 

[dodukes]

Well I dont know about bumping the money or what their current status is on extra thing like tv time ans such but...
I was watching the show on discovery about the Dilley sextuplets and I thought one of their methods was great. They made up their own currency so that when the kids did their chores they got "dilley dollars" (they used what could even be monopoly dollars) that they were later able to trade in for more tv time, more video game time or even on the dollar but it wasnt dollar for dollar i dont think. I thought this maybe a nice incentive on top of an allowance. I know your kids are older but maybe they can work there way up to a night at the movies with friends if they have lets say $12 dollars or something (and you would pay a little extra but its not as bad as if you're just giving them the money to go out..., anyway just my thought i wish I could be much more help, just an idea that i saw and thought may work with yours since you already give them an allowance.
I guess it wouldnt just hurt to pay them on a per chore type thing but I imagine u'd have to have constant cash and singles around the house.

Edited to add that I may not be the bst source due to I was never given an allowance.

 

[lisabarr]

We use a discipline ladder. Privledged (like watching TV or playing outside) are based on where you are on the ladder. If you are naughty, you are moved down, if you help out, you are moved up. At the very top of the ladder, we give out money if you help more. Most of the time our kids are working off their minor transgressions and don't get money for helping out (we give a quarter if they take out the trash, for instance - a good room cleaning is worth a buck).

Do you have a template for that you would share?TIA

 

[Mom-to-2-Princesses]

Hi!

This is what we do -- regular chores around the house we do because we are part of a family. So we all clear the table, we all load and unload the dishwasher, we all keep the general areas of the house clean. We do these things without getting "paid". Now their room is their space -- so we pay allowance based on a clean bedroom. I have a chart in the hall -- when I get up I peek in their rooms and see if the beds are made and if it is clean. If yes they get a check on the chart, if not they get a circle. At the end of the week they get 50 cents (or any amount you like) for each clean day. I do not give second chances, and I don't yell at them to clean their rooms - the dollar amount at the end of the week speaks loudly enough!

Good Luck!

 

[Mom21]

Here is what I do. First of all, I don't believe in paying my dd for chores that she should do because she lives here too. I don't get paid. I give her $25 a week (I know sounds like a lot), but she is on the envelope system. Of that it is divided as follows:
church--$5
charity(her choice--usually missionaries or a school thing) $2
gifts (for bday parties for friends--I do usually chip in) $3
savings account- $5
spend $10

To most people I talk to they think $10 is a lot, however my dd has to pay me if she doesn't do her chores. For example, in the morning she is supposed to make her bed, put her jammies in the hamper, and wash the toothpaste out of the sink (off the cabinets, off the wall, etc. Somehow it is everywhere ). Before she leaves for school I will look it over and tell her what hasn't been done (more than fair I think). If she still leaves for school she has to pay me to do them. Anywhere from .25 to $1 depending on the extent of the chore. To be fair, if I need help with something that is typically my responsibility I will pay her such as folding towels or the bathrooms. Other things dd has to pay for include gatorade for her cheer. I keep gatorade at the house for her on cheer days that I pay for. 1/3 the price. She is reminded twice to get it. If she forgets then she can either drink water out of the fountain or buy her own. At $1.50 3 times a week that $10 doesn't go far. Needless to say it has made her more responsible. She buys her own gum. I do buy her ice cream at school on Wed as a treat. You should see how carefully she spends now at Michael's. She loves arts and crafts stuff. Now that it is her money instead of mine, she is quite the little cheapo. She comments on how she can get stuff cheaper at....than..... She even asks me if I have a coupon.

Her responsiblities:
empty dishwasher (about half the time--half I do it)
clean up clothes and put in hamper
hang up towel after shower
wipe out sink after brushing teeth
put away all toys at end of day
make bed
fold and put away all laundry--hang up clothes on hangers and I put in closet
put away pool toys and goggles when done for the day
clear off her dishes after dinner
breakfast and lunch dishes cleaned and in sink or dishwasher (not found in the playroom---that makes me the angriest )
taking out trash if I ask--I usually do it just because I am there
anything else out of the ordinary that I ask

I really don't require much of her because she does spend lots of hours on homework and cheer. But I feel if she doesn't do the bare minimum then she needs to pay me. Keep in mind I remind her up to 2 times.

Hope that helps.

 

[EthansMom]

DS5 just started to get an allowance. Instead of tying his allowance to any particular chores, I take advantage of the time when I'm giving him his allowance to remind him that as part of his responsibilities, DS has to clean up his toys before getting new toys out and has to keep his room clean. He gets $2 per week, which he promptly puts in his piggy bank.

 

[imsayin]

We don't hand out cash, cause we are really bad at having it, and the kids are bad at keeping it. We keep an account book and the kids can withdraw from the bank of Mom and Dad (which may involve a trip to Wells Fargo).

I was the worst at handing out cash. I now have monthly allowance direct deposited into the kids ING accounts (just transfer from mine, set up to be automatic each month). If they want to make a withdrawal, I give them cash & transfer the money to my account. Since we started this method, they have left the majority of their money in savings.

 

[liveforthemagic]

Some things our kids are just expected to so, like everybody else says, cause its their house too.

They are 8 and 11, and they have had a chore chart I think for about 3 years now. They each have a different assigned chore 5 days a week. They are off on Friday(its the only day nobody has to clean anything or do any homework) and off on Wednesdays cause their after school schedule makes anything else impossible.

For example, DS11 is responsible for emptying all the little trashcans in the bedrooms and bathrooms, the laundry room and then taking all the trash to the curb on Thu, cause trash pick up is Fri. My favorite for him is that every Tue he has to take the Clorox wipes and spiff up the kids bathroom. He who misses the target must clean up the fall out! That usually holds us until the weekend when the bathrooms get their serious cleaning from me. Anyway--we try to make their allowance chores a bit more time intensive and appropriate for that child. My DD is a mess with her toothpaste so her job on Tuesdays is to wipe out all the fallout on their sink, make sure they have enough Dixie cups and that the hand towel is clean.

For payment, they can earn up to $2/week, plus they can earn the privilege of buying their lunch up to 3x/week. Lunch is easy cause they have meal cards so I don't have to come up with cash. However we never have singles on hand, so I made up little dollars and I'll give them however much I feel like they earned. We used to go with the policy that we wouldn't remind them of the chore, but if they didn't do it, we didn't pay. So of course, very little chores got done. Now, I will remind them so the chores get done, but if I have to mention it more than once, I don't have to pay for it. DD usually just drops her money right into the Mickey Jar--what a girl! And DS saves it up and turns it in to us when he is ready to buy something, which we put on our Am Ex which earns us a frequent flyer mile for every dollar spent to go, you know where!

 

[tarheelmjfan]

My parents didn't give allowance. They gave us money as we needed it. If we hadn't done what they asked us to, the punishment would have been much worse than having money withheld.

When our DS started school, we decided to give him an allowance. He's a child who just has to have money, so withholding it wasn't a big deal. We always bought his lunch & clothes, etc. That was just fun money, which he would forget to even ask for most weeks.

Before middle school, I spoke with some of the School Resource Officers in the area, & heard lots of horror stories about kids being caught with drugs. In middle school, no less. Just so there's no confusion, we live in a very nice community. When you think about it, poor kids don't have money to buy drugs. They may sell it, but not buy it. To add to that, I also had friends of older kids who had bullies taking their lunch money from them. (My DS was never bullied, but some were.) My DH & I decided to abandon the allowance concept at that time. We put lunch & snack money on mylunchmoney.com for him. When he needs/ wants something, he asks for it. We then know where the money is being spent. I don't think my DS would do anything like that, but I'm sure the parents of the kids who were caught with drugs didn't either.

Now that he started High School this year, I'm less inclined to give him disposable money in a lump sum. He's given $3 a day for lunch. Most of the time he comes home starved & lays his $3 on the counter. He doesn't even eat at school. In reality, there's no way we could come upon a set amount of allowance that would pay for everything that comes up in HS. Why not pay as we go, & know where it goes? That's how we think on the subject this week anyway.

PS: He's expected to do what is asked of him, just like I was. Money has nothing to do with it. JMO

 

[TomD]

I give my oldest $5 a week for putting the dishes in the dishwasher and emptying it. She also keeps her room clean aand helps out when asked

I give my youngest $3 a week for vacuming the kitchen and dining room(small Area) and keeping her room picked up. She also does extra when asked.

 

[crisi]

Do you have a template for that you would share?TIA

It needs to be a little different for each kid....my daughter has different motivations than my son. - This is Dilley inspired as well, but I didn't like the Dilley dollars thing.

But from the top going down, we have about ten steps and they are something like this:

1 Earn Money
2 Special Stuff (overnights, pool, movies)
3 Educational trips with Mom and Dad (museums, etc)
4 Have Friends over/go over to Friends
5 Play Video Games
6 Watch TV
7 Play with toys
8 Draw
9 Read
10 Time Out

Moving up and down is fairly aribirary (lesson: life isn't fair, yes - yesterday that moved you down one step, but today Mom has a headache and is in a lousy mood - its two! But usually Mom gets guilty and lets you move up two for helping out with a minor task). Generally however, minor transgressions (too much whining, not getting your shoes on after two warnings) gets you moved one step - major transgressions (hitting your sister), puts you straight at the bottom to move yourself back up.


I have this attached to a piece of corkboard and each child has a pretty colored thumbtack we move around.

 

[jessica52877]

My parents didn't give allowance. They gave us money as we needed it. If we hadn't done what they asked us to, the punishment would have been much worse than having money withheld.

When our DS started school, we decided to give him an allowance. He's a child who just has to have money, so withholding it wasn't a big deal. We always bought his lunch & clothes, etc. That was just fun money, which he would forget to even ask for most weeks.

Before middle school, I spoke with some of the School Resource Officers in the area, & heard lots of horror stories about kids being caught with drugs. In middle school, no less. Just so there's no confusion, we live in a very nice community. When you think about it, poor kids don't have money to buy drugs. They may sell it, but not buy it. To add to that, I also had friends of older kids who had bullies taking their lunch money from them. (My DS was never bullied, but some were.) My DH & I decided to abandon the allowance concept at that time. We put lunch & snack money on mylunchmoney.com for him. When he needs/ wants something, he asks for it. We then know where the money is being spent. I don't think my DS would do anything like that, but I'm sure the parents of the kids who were caught with drugs didn't either.

Now that he started High School this year, I'm less inclined to give him disposable money in a lump sum. He's given $3 a day for lunch. Most of the time he comes home starved & lays his $3 on the counter. He doesn't even eat at school. In reality, there's no way we could come upon a set amount of allowance that would pay for everything that comes up in HS. Why not pay as we go, & know where it goes? That's how we think on the subject this week anyway.

PS: He's expected to do what is asked of him, just like I was. Money has nothing to do with it. JMO

I am not for an allowance, mainly because I didn't get one and feel my childhood life was just fine. I learned the value of money and wasn't bought everything I wanted.

BUT this just confirms my thinking. I am really glad you shared this because of course I never thought my son would buy drugs, but this makes it 10x harder. Of course he is only 3 right now, so no worries for a while! Thanks for the good info though!

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

I started allowances with my kids about 6 months ago and I think it has really helped teach them the value of money. My rule is that they have to understand how much each coin/bill is worth and how to add and subtract it in order to get an allowance so my 7 yo, 9 yo, and 10yo each get one. I don't give them cash.

At the beginning of each month I write their allowance for the month at the top of a piece of paper with their name on it. the 7yo gets $7, 9yo gets $9 etc. Throughout the month if they don't clean up after themselves, our basic house rule, they can lose money, such as not clearing their place after dinner or not putting their clothes in the hamper. If they do extra things not expected of them such as washing the van or helping out with the toddler they can earn more money. What's left at the end of the month is their allowance for the month. If they want to buy something they ask me for their money and I take them shopping.

If I ask them to do something I expect them to do it, but if I feel that it's something extra I will offer them money to do it, sometimes they ask and I'll say no, but they're still expected to do it. It works for us.

 

[lovesmurfs]

We don't hand out cash, cause we are really bad at having it, and the kids are bad at keeping it. We keep an account book and the kids can withdraw from the bank of Mom and Dad (which may involve a trip to Wells Fargo).

I've been calling it the "Bank of Mom" (Dad doesn't keep track of how much we owe). DS12 regularly watches my DD6 (he's Red Cross Certified to babysit and knows more than I did even in high school!), and I pay him, because I expect him to take it seriously (and because it can interfere with his "fun" plans sometimes).

Well, last week (he hasn't wanted any money since early spring) we added up what I owe him --- OMG $544. Talk about a run on the bank! On Tuesday we're opening a savings account for him at our bank so I can transfer funds online WHEN he does the service. I also don't want him to think it's okay to owe people money (by my being a bad example).

 

[TenThousandVolts]

My kids 9&10 get $20 per month. They get $10 each month for basic helpfulness- they help me with groceries, clean up the toy room daily, help out with the 3 year old, clear the table, keep their rooms straight... DD also vacuums a few times each month because she likes it.
Now (we just started this in June) once a week they each clean one of our bathrooms, they do a remarkably good job. I do the tub/shower and scrub the toilet bowl still but they do everything else (floor, trash, sink, mirror, toilet exterior...) They get an extra $10 per month for that.

I thought the Dilley's were brilliant. I wish I could be so organized.

 

[mamalle]

mine are 4 and 6 and yes they do get a allowance. both are responsible for the pets- feeding, watering everyday. they both get $3.00 a week every friday into the mason jar. they are expected to make their beds, clean their room, etc and will help put dishes and clothes away.. when they get alittle older we will advance the rate and the chore duties....

 

[crisi]

BUT this just confirms my thinking. I am really glad you shared this because of course I never thought my son would buy drugs, but this makes it 10x harder. Of course he is only 3 right now, so no worries for a while! Thanks for the good info though!

The ones with money buy drugs for the ones without - money makes it no harder or easier. Then the ones without start stealing. I have a friend who went through a bad time in Junior High with drugs....and his parents were poor. He stole bikes. He'd straightened up by high school.

When I was young, the poor kids could only afford pot, and the rich kids could afford coke, and you had a definate advantage in the hardness of drugs if you were the parent of poor kids. Now you can get crack for cheap and I think the advantage is gone.

I'm 40. I don't know anyone except myself who didn't try drugs as kids, and I know several people who had it affect their lives (though no one I know now went through addiction - those people dropped away long ago). Didn't matter if they were rich (and I knew some rich kids) or poor (and I knew kids who grocery shopped at the food shelf).

 

[Temair]

We don't do allowances, we do commisions for work done. This is the Dave Ramsey approach to teaching kids about money. My dd is almost 7 and we curretnly pay $.25 for each chore she does each day. Her chores are clean her room, put away her clean laundry, feed cats, water cats, feed fish, set table and clear table. So if she wanted she could earn $12.25 in a week if she did everything. She can also lose money for bad attitude, fighting, not doing chores (If I do the work she pays me to do it, she usually prefers this to cleaning her own room.) When she gets paid she puts the money in 3 enevelopes 10% or more in giving, then the remainder equally divided between saving and spending. The saving she uses to save for big purchases. She is currently saving to help pay for her kitten to get fixed.(This is her choice but I support her as it is her cat.) We also have some chores she is just expected to do and she doesn't get paid for them. She is expected to help out as she is part of the family.

Temair