Today Elizabeth at Family Life With the Babler Family asked about chores and payment for the kids.
Here is what we do...
Both kids are expected to pick up after themselves...make their beds, clean their rooms, put their clothes away, etc. I do help Claire with some since she is only 6. They do not get paid for these things. We consider them part of being in a family and doing your part.
My son (11) clears the table after dinner. He also mows the lawn. He gets $5 each time he mows, but is not paid for other chores around the house. He is saving his money for a laptop so he mows without complaining because he wants the money!
My daughter (6) is suppose to set the table for dinner. Most days she does. She does not get paid for this. However, during the year, she does certain chores to earn her monthly dues for girl scouts. We made a sticker chart and when she got 10 stickers in a month she got $1, which was her dues for the month. The chores on the chart were simple things like picking up after the cat, dust mopping the floor, carrying in groceries, etc. Since we have started paying her brother to mow she wants to make money too, so I think this year I will give her $2 for getting 10 stickers. That way she can keep one and pay her dues with the other.
My kids have often asked for an allowance and we've always said no. Partially because we pretty much buy them whatever they need anyway. Partially because we think they should learn to be part of a family/community and do things because they should be done, not because they are getting paid to do them.
Since mowing the lawn is a bigger chore and a service that people actually pay for we are paying our son. Its not much, but the yard is small and he just mows...no edging or anything. If he starts doing it all we'll probably pay him more.
Great question, Elizabeth! I can't wait to see what others say.
Life is like an amusement park... exciting, exhausting, and never ever boring!
3 comments:
Great post Aimmee. Our biggest issue with chores has been the payment issue. I also feel that chores should be done because we are part of a family, but our kids are so lacking in motivation, and hubby and I are trying to figure out how to help them stay motivated without payment, or rewards of some kind. We've got chores all laid out....but we can't figure out whether we should be giving them rewards of some kind for their jobs. I like what you did with your daughter, that sounds like it is helping her with responsibility! Thanks for your thoughts! I enjoy gleaning ideas from others on these kinds of subjects!
That is the reason that we've yet to pay our kids. We feel like they are part of our family and need to learn responsibility.
I totally agree about not paying pocket money for jobs that you would expect a child to do, in order to be part of the fsmily. When I was a child we got given 50c each as pocket money each week. This was totally unrelated to our house chores, and really just so that if we wanted to buy something we could save up for it.
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