Allowance or commission??

[Kristen]

The paying for grades thread made me think of this. Will you be giving your children allowances or have them on a commission system where they only get paid for doing work (chores, responsibilites, etc?)

Will you have set responsibilties for each child or rotate?

What are your thoughts?

[Jayne]

I think we have had a thread like this somewhere.

I don't give money for either. For me it is more on how things go. Say Tylor really wants to get a game at gamestop or something. If he has been really well behaved and doing well in school, no fighting with his sister and I feel he deserves it then I will let him get it. There are plenty of times when he doesn't get what he has asked for because he doesn't deserve it. I just can't see paying my child for doing things that I feel should just be done no matter what. Such as cleaning his room or making his bed. Same with Alyssa.

As he gets older and things like money for a dance or money for going to lunch..those will still be the same. Tylor saves all his money also and so does his sister from birthdays and christmas. I don't let them spend that as I want it in their savings for when they are older and actually need money for real things such as school books gas.

Now last weekend my mom called them both over and told them that she would pay them 2$ each to clean up her front yard. (Sticks and such) They both did it and got paid for it. I don't see anything wrong with that because that was something that they are not usually expected to do. It was her way of paying them for a job and I was ok with that.

I don't know if I am getting my reasoning across but I tried.

[MelissaM]

I happily give allowances that are not based on chores or work done...all chores in our house are more of a group effort anyway so noone has anything set...if it needs to be done we just designate :lol:

So yeah, allowances are working just fine here :)

[magoo]

I don't think that we will tie allowance to chores. They will be expected to do chores because we all should contribute to keeping the household running smoothly.

ETA: That I do plan on them receiving a weekly allowance. I haven't really thought about how much or when to start, though.

[Nadine]

We don't have allowances. We have a token system - so far only for Yumi.

When he does X, he gets a certain amount of tokens. Those are usually mundane things that he has trouble doing. For example, he gets 5 tokens for getting up in the morning and 5 for getting ready for school (dressed, teeth brushed, breakfast eaten), 7 for HW and so on.

With the tokens he can earn the right to watch TV (5 for 30 mins), listen to a story (5), have a friend over or go to a friend (10) and so on. He can also save them up and go to the store with us and buy something of his choice. 1 token = 0.5 NIS (around 10 cents)
Since Yumi needs incentives and needs to learn to postpone his needs ("I want X NOW") this is a system that works for us.

[Joan]

I happily give allowances that are not based on chores or work done...all chores in our house are more of a group effort anyway so noone has anything set...if it needs to be done we just designate :lol:

So yeah, allowances are working just fine here :)

We do the same thing here. Sean gets $20/month.

[MelissaM]

We do the same thing here. Sean gets $20/month.

:locolaugh Jennifer gets $20 a WEEK....

William gets $20 a month though :)

[Kara]

I want to do an allowance...I need to talk to dh and implement it..I really want to stress saving and tithing though too.
I am thinking of getting him one of those ATM type machine/bank for his birthday.

[Kristen]

I'm leaning towards a commission type payment system where she will be paid for the work she does. Granted there are jobs we do just as part of the family, but I want her to have teachable moments and tie in the fact the $$ = work and vice versa. I also want to set up a system where she divides her money into savings, tithing, spending, etc.

I think the ATM/Bank machine sounds fun!!!

[DarcyT]

It depends. When they get older we may do a regular weekly allowance. But at this time we don't. I do most of the housework and nobody pays me an allowance. :shuffle:

[Clare]

I was just going to start a thread about this.

I think the time has come to start giving Emily pocketmoney. Harry has a sticker chart, he gets stickers when he behaves and then gets a prize when he's earned his stickers. Emily always behaves but doesn't get rewarded for it :dunno: So I want to start giving her pocketmoney.

What sort of chores do you think are appropriate for a 6 year old? And how much would you pay for each chore?

I'm thinking of tidying her room and setting the table, but what else?

My initial thought was 50c per chore. So example if she set the table every night for a week and tidied her room 3 times, she'd get $5 that week. Or is a set amount every week better?

[TtownAnne]

Clare, I'm not sure how garbage pick up works there, but one of Caroline's favorite chores is returning the wheeled trash cans back to the garage. She also helps empty the silverware-holder in the dishwasher back to their proper places in the silverware drawer, and "helps" with dusting (just because she likes using the duster thing, we don't expect a perfect job!). She gets $2 per week.

[Callie907]

My brother's kids get $5 a week if they make their bed. They seem to be doing good, and all have been good savers! I hope my girls do this well!:lol:

[Clare]

Clare, I'm not sure how garbage pick up works there, but one of Caroline's favorite chores is returning the wheeled trash cans back to the garage. She also helps empty the silverware-holder in the dishwasher back to their proper places in the silverware drawer, and "helps" with dusting (just because she likes using the duster thing, we don't expect a perfect job!). She gets $2 per week.

Emily likes dusting too :lol: I don't know that the trash cans would work b/c Harry helps Daddy with that now. Putting away the cutlery out of the dishwasher is a good idea :nod: