Now there are those that strongly believe that children should do work around the house for free just to be a contributing member of the family; and to those people I say that I whole heartedly agree. There is nothing wrong with a kid rolling up his/her sleeves and doing a job just because it is their part of being a family member.
My reason for making the kids work for a commission is very simple.....I do not want to just give them money.
Here is one of the definitions of allowance in the online dictionary (Thank you, dictionary.com):
a sum of money allotted or granted to a person on a regular basis, as for personal or general living expenses
By definition, the word allowance simply won't work for me. I don't like the idea of my kids being allotted or granted anything; if they want it, they are going to have to earn it. Plus, if they happen to learn some lessons about money along the way......When Karla and I were both full time employees we always tried to keep a chore chart for the kids. But then life would get crazy and the charts always managed to fall by the way side.
But now that I am home there will always be someone to stay on top of the charts and keep track of each kid's commission.
The chore chart is an awesome way to teach responsibility. I don't tell either of the kids anything. I don't remind them that they have chores to do. I simply check the chore chart at the end of each day and double check the work that they performed.
If they didn't perform their daily tasks, they lose
If they performed their daily tasks in a sub par manner, they lose their commission....(I'm actually fairly lenient on this one, although I probably shouldn't be)
If they performed the task but didn't check it off on the chore chart, they lose their commission for that day. I like to refer to this part as the life isn't fair lesson, or sometimes I will call it the CYA (cover your ass) lesson. Or sometimes I'll just say, tough shit, get over it......
Nope....Life's not all hugs and puppies. I would rather they learn that lesson from me than for them to find themselves in a pinch when they are out on their own.
(Another rule that helps keep the house clean is the 24 hour rule. If one of the kids leaves something laying around and it is there for more that 24 hours it gets "impounded" and a fee will have to be paid in order bail it out....I charge .25 cents an item......Clutter has not been a problem for a while now.)
When you combine the chore chart with the 50/50 rule you end up with a very powerful teaching tool in regards to financial and personal responsibility.
The 50/50 rule is another outstanding parenting tool that we borrowed from Karla's parents. Here's how it works; We tell the kids that if they can save half the money for any item over 'x' amount of dollars then we will cover the other half.
This is a great rule for a few reasons.
1. Kids want a lot of things, and those things get more expensive the older they get. Now I don't have a problem with getting them a nice Christmas or birthday present, but the rest of the year the kids need to learn how to be patient and save for those big things that they want. The one thing I don't want them to get used to is unearned gratification.
I do realize that kids simply don't have the resources to earn the kind of money they need to get something like an Xbox or a laptop. If they were solely responsible for those things they would get frustrated and give up. It's unreasonable to ask a kid to save for that long. That's why Karla and I chip in half. We did have to start specifying that we would pay half on anything educational after Toby proved to be a savvy saver and we had to spring for half a laptop and half a trampoline within a 12 month period. He also managed to get a TV and a mini refrigerator out of us before we reassessed and put new rules in place to keep him from breaking our budget.
2. Once they have scraped and pinched and saved for their big purchase, I guarantee they will take better care of their purchase as opposed to if it were just given to them. The kids realize just how long it took for them to save for the item and will have no desire to repeat the lengthy process. They want to save for the next purchase! :)
3. They will get a head start in learning the value of a dollar. Make a kid save for an item and suddenly you will find them pouring through sale ads and surfing the net for a deal.
When Toby starting saving for his laptop at nine years of age, he got on line and learned about hard drive capacity, memory, processor performance, graphics cards, etc. etc. He would have never learned that had we just bought him the laptop.
In short, Toby started to learn how to get the biggest bang for his buck.
Karla and I have found that combining the 50/50 rule with the chore chart is a great way of showing our punks that money does not grow on trees and that they should never expect anything to be just given to them. It gives them a small idea of what it's like to work for a living and the importance of performing a task to the best of their abilities....I haven't had to fire either one of them yet... :)
This summer we plan on expanding and getting more aggressive about teaching financial responsibility.
Toby now has his own checking account and is responsible for paying for anything school related out of his own pocket. He will be responsible for ledgering all of his checks, keeping receipts and documenting all purchases made with his debit card.....I have to admit....The debit card makes me nervous. But, as I stated earlier, it's better that he take his lumps now as opposed to later.
After I spent the entire blog saying I don't want to just allot or grant anything to my kids we are making one small concession. Toby has reached the age where he is very picky about his attire -- so much so that he has successfully aggravated the shit out of his mother.
So now Toby now gets a clothing allowance once every six months so that Karla won't throttle him every time he tells her that her latest purchase sucks and he doesn't want to wear it. (Actually, Toby would just say that he doesn't care for it....Tera would most definitely tell Karla that it sucks)
But the clothing allowance, which we started last summer, is already paying big dividends. Suddenly Toby's insatiable desire to buy every pair of shoes Nike makes has been greatly curtailed. He now goes into the stores looking for sales and tags that say 50% off on them. Now, hand me downs from his cousin aren't such a bad thing.
And he isn't asking for a new pair of shorts every pay day.
We won't be that aggressive with Tera, given she is only nine. But with our tournament schedule starting in April and running through June there will be plenty of opportunities for her to ask for something out of the concession stand......
Sorry, kid, you're going to have to spend your own money on that. However, I do have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or a home made granola bar or trail mix that you can have. And a non carbonated drink like water doesn't taste bad at all once you get used to it.
I can just see the look on her face now......"Fine, whatever." And then she will snatch the sandwich out of my hands and eat it with great disgust....Om, nom nom.....
But Tera, being a bright kid and a little bit of a travel hound, knows that we will take a vacation somewhere at least once over the summer. I know her....She will save the money to purchase a memento. She always does.
I have no idea if what Karla and I are trying to do in regards to teaching our kids financial responsibility will turn out to be successful....Only time will tell.
But we can at least say we tried.
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