How Much Allowance Should I Give My Children, and for What Chores?

I agree with Andrea, one of the responses below. I don't give my kids allowances, but they do get money to save and spend from B-day gifts, X-mas, or extra chores that are above and beyond what they normally do. When they want something we discuss how well they have been doing their chores, etc., so they really have to do a good job or else next time they want something, they may or may not get it. It keeps them on their toes.

J.
www.livetotalwellness.com/janislanz

Hi, I recently heard on an interview on XM 156 with Jean Chatsky interviewing Chris Gardner. They were talking about alowances, So, what Chris did with his children is pay them for grades, apparentley Jean´s boyfriend also did the same.
The idea is as follows: 20 dllrs for an A+, 10 dllrs for an A, 5 dllrs for a B+, Cero dllrs for a B and from there down money would be taken away.
Jean would say she paid them for example 5 dllrs (for the older one) to do 2 or 3 daily chores such as take out the garbage, tidy up the bathroom, and the kitchen table, the youngest would get a dollar less since they are smaller. They both pointed out that when it came to the big item $$ toys, their allowance would definatley have to be included in the payment.
She also stated that poart of their chores is not precisley keeping their room clean, that is o b l i g a t i o n .
Chris told a story about how his kids one XMAS came home with a backwards alphabet so he left the tree up and no one opened presents until the next report card, apparently it never happened again.
So hope their advice works for you.

My 10 yo can earn not just allowance with her chores and optional house duties but computer time (for her webkinz and disney gaming and other pursuits not school required or needed) so her allowance is $5.00 per week, but that is keeping in mind that there are set deductions for chores that are not done or are not done correctly (age appropriate of course)...

she does the following regular chores:

* her own laundry (2 loads) 1x per week
* washes the stairs (we have wooden ones) 1x per week
* unload and reload dishes each night and however many times it get run on weekends
* clean her bathroom 1x per week
* straighten her bathroom daily
* make her bed daily
* straighten her room daily
* take out kitchen trash nightly
* take out bathroom trashes (there are 3) 1x per week

Then we made a list of optional chores with a Price list for rewards...

at 7 she was paid 2.50 per week and did the following:

* separated her laundry for me to do
* made her bed daily (straightened her covers and put pillows on bed)
* straighten her room daily
* put away silverware (forks, butterknives, and spoons)
* put folded clothes where they belong in her room
* take out bathroom trash (her bathroom only)
* wash the stairs

She also helped out a lot in other ways... and we rewarded her for her efforts...we didn't have problems with her and chores until she hit 10...then we were told that chores were for "parents and servants"....now we have a very detailed coin program for her allowance and chores and rewards...she was able to be part of making it and it keeps her working towards goals...

Good luck ;-)

I'll probably fall in the minority here, but I think that allowance should be given only for extraneous chores from the children, like certain yard work or any special projects (washing your car, mopping the floor, etc.). Regular chores like laundry and taking out trash and washing dishes, etc.--not to mention doing their best in school-- should be thought of as their responsibility to the household and to their future and should be rewarded with privileges like television and special requests at mealtime.

In our home its a $1.00 per year of age (ex. $10 & $7) per week. Although they have opportunities to earn more if they do extra (raking and picking up leaves in the yard, etc.)As far as chores: unload the dishwasher, wipe off the table after dinner, clean the cat liter box, pick up dog poo, feeding and making sure the animals have clean water, take out the trash and recycling, take the cans to the curb the night before trash day, sweep, dust, vacuum, clean the bathroom mirror, tub, etc. Also, if they do a shotty job money gets taken away. We don't give money for cleaning their rooms or picking up after themselves because thats part of having pride in where you live.

We also have a savings program, 1 week a month their allowance goes into their bank account.

Hope this helps!
S.

Hi T.,

You've already been given some input - but this book has been helpful to me - Life Skills for Kids by Christine Field. She has a whole section on chores - what kids should be able to do at what ages. Of course, you know your own kids and can adjust, but I find it helpful to have a starting point for reference.
Hope this is helpful!
A.

About 4-5 yrs ago, I started giving my 2 girls a monthly allowance of their age. They had to put $2 in the jar (we decide every year where to donate this). They are not required to do anything to earn this money. This is their money to buy things that I don't want to purchase for them. Example, continous snacks at events, junk soveiners from vacation (I will buy 1-2 quality items for them), etc. This has cut down on the whining for this/that tremendously!!
I also agree that they should not be paid for chores that they should do anyway and why pay them if they don't do it right and it has to be repeated, etc.
In this day and age, for my 16 y.o., this is not alot of money but it has taught them how to conserve and make wise monetary decisions.

What I've been doing with my 2 year old and 3 3/4 year old is to reward stickers. Their chores right now are to work on staying dry, and to clean up their toys before supper every night. I've been giving $5 a week. However, I like Shani's idea of $1 for each year a child is in age. That would mean that my younger daughter would get $2 a week and my older daughter would get $3.75 a week. I am wondering when it should be capped off, though. Should a 15 year old get $15 a week? Maybe. It depends on what the 15 year old is doing. It costs $25 or so a week to have the lawn mowed by someone else, so why not pay your teenager to do it for less.
The way my sticker system works is that I have a chart for each of my children. My younger one has a longer chart, because she gets stickers for staying dry during different parts of the day. She gets a sticker in the morning (staying dry all night), a sticker at lunch (staying dry till lunch), a sticker at supper (staying dry till supper), and sticker at bedtime (staying dry at bedtime). They both get an extra sticker for having their toys all put away by the time supper is served, and without whinning! My older daughter gets one sticker a day, because she should be able to stay dry throughout the day. She gets extra stickers for staying dry at night (but seems to be having trouble staying dry at night, even if she hasn't had anything to drink for an hour or so before bedtime). Every time a row on their charts is completed, they earn their weekly reward - - right now I'm not giving out money, but taking them shopping or to an event that costs around $5. At the end of the entire chart, I do give them a bigger reward: a dvd, a trip to the zoo, or anything $25 or under. I don't know if this helps. I've found some great tips from the other moms on here! I think when they get older I'll start giving them actual money, and have them tithe and put 10% into their savings accounts. Great ideas!

I agree with Heather P. Allowence should only be given for doing extra things that help unload your burden (washing the car, mowing the lawn, washing the dogs, etc.) I'm all for praising kids when they are keeping up with their daily living chores when they do them without argument as that shows maturity and responsibility; but I just feel that allowence for daily living chores is just wrong. Those chores are necessary life skills and just plain being a family contributor.

When you do pay your children, I think payment should be equal if the boys are expected to do the same chores. Your younger son's age doesn't mean his toys or expenses are any less expensive than his brother's(unless he were an infant). When I pay my 12 yr old for her chores, I pay based on difficulty and frequency of the chore. For example, I would pay my daughter more for washing our 2 dogs than I would for her mowing the yard. She could mow the lawn once a week to earn more money than she could for washing our dogs. Also, I pay more for a better job done. For example, if my daughter also edged when she mowed I'd give her a bonus since that would be something I wouldn't have expected her to do.

I'm sure you'll find what's right for your family. Best of luck!

Great question! We just went through this in our house. I had my son come up with the list of things that he could do around the house and then let him come up with the amount for each chore. It's a quarter here and fifty cents there. I put it on a spread sheet and hung it on the fridge. He has two piggy banks, one is for what he wants to spend his money on and the other goes into the "big bank" at the end of the year. Hope this helps.

My daughter is 6 and she gets $0.15 a piece (total of $0.45 a day)for doing the following 3 chores each day: (1) scoop the poop and feed her cat; (2) pick up her room and her desk area in the home office; and (3) provide extra help to mommy when asked w/o whinning. I pay her every evening b/c I find that promises of money at the end of the week of a larger payday is not as motivating to keep up the chores as hearing the jingle of coins in her jar every night.

I am anxious to see the responses that you get on this. I could use some help myself.

A couple of years ago, I started giving my son (now 9) $5 per week. My thought, at the time, was that this would be a good way for me to limit the amount of money that I was spending on toys.

I don’t connect the allowance with chores like feeding the cat, taking out the trash or picking up after himself because I think that this is stuff that he should be doing just because he is part of the family.

I have tried to give him a little extra for doing bigger jobs. My thinking on this was that he needs to learn to do things so that his future wife will not be stuck with someone whose mamma didn’t teach him anything! (apologies to my mother-in-law) I offered him $1 to clean his bathroom. He asked if he could have $2 if he did a really good job & I agreed. So he spent all of about 15 minutes doing it & seemed totally convinced that he had done a great job. I paid him the $2 & spent the rest of the week restraining myself from going behind him to re-clean it to my standards, since I am sure that would have hurt his feelings. If you plan to do something like this, make sure that you are right there with them to supervise & assist step by step until they learn. I had intended to walk my son through it, but he was “done” before I could get back to him.

There are also a couple of other pit-falls that I will warn you of. I was thinking that an allowance would help my son to learn to be fiscally responsible & save. Well, it hasn’t exactly worked out. Now, every time that we go to any store, even the grocery store, he wants to buy something & since he has his own money to do it, it is harder for me to say no. When I think that I am just going to run in and grab 1 or 2 things, he is going to want to spend what seems like forever trying to find something that he can afford for the $1-2 he may have left plus surveying everything that he could have bought if he could actually bring himself to save.

The other thing is that all of the grandparents live out of town & so he is constantly getting holiday or birthday cards with money in them. It seemed like a good idea at first for me to withhold allowance for behavior problems & the like, but I have found that he really doesn’t miss it. The little dude seems to have more money than I do.

We did the same thing with our daughter, she made the chores chart and we agreed on the price for each time she did that chore without being asked to. When she didn't want to do chores, she didn't get spending money. Just like the real world. It worked great!

I am a 47 yr old mother of a 26 yr old man and 22 yr old woman who is a mother herself. Back when my kids were so small I paid them $5 dollars to start. They had a can or jar and they had to save 10% of there earnings for church and 10% savings and the rest they could spend anyway they wanted. They had parent check books that they had to keep ( I believe you can still buy them in stores). They took out the garbage, made beds, cleaned after themselves helped wash my car and other things as they got older. They had a check-off list because they sometines forgot what they were supppose to do. Understand what ever chore you give them accept there work even if it is not as good as you would like to be. They are not perfect. I kinda was not really good at this and my kids tell me now - nothing is ever good enough for you, so I have that coming that is why I am passing on so you do not make the same mistake.
Good luck and make sure to tell your kids how much you love them and appreciate them every day - that I did do and they always tell me they love me and appreciate me even when they are upset with me.

I love Shani's ideas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello there
My husband and I were just talking about this the other day. We are not to this stage yet but we plan on giving our kids allowance because we want them to learn how to manage money even if its on a very small scale. I personally think their are some jobs that should be done without pay, just basic contribution to be apart of the team like folding/putting away your own cloths,unloading the dishwasher and general things that have to be done often. Stuff that is no fun at all are the kinds of things I was payed for. Cleaning bathrooms, washing windows outside, weeding, cleaning the garage, and other things that involve sweat. They may be a little to young for some of these jobs but you would be suprised what a kid can do with a goal in sight. And make sure their is a standard and that you personally show them what it is, then make sure they know that they will not be rewarded untill the job is done to that standard. The more sweat and time, should equal money. I plan on trying to keep most jobs between 1-5 dollars but thats me, I want to keep them wanting to earn more, not too much at one time or they may not be as motivated. Like I said these ideas are in theory only but if it works let me know.
Good Luck!

hi T.,
there are lots of chores they can do at there ages ,set the table,clear the table,take out the trash ,if you have pets feed and water them ,keep their rooms clean,,dont soak the bath room floor ,and other small jobs like these i'm sure there are some out side jobs also. so make a chart with their names and chores mark them as they do them and pay them that is the hard part in the mess asre economy is in so i'll say betwween $5, $10 weekly if you think they deserve more pay them more or pay them by the chore .hope this helps.

L.

There are 2 schools of thought I have heard of on this allowance matter: 1) children should not be paid for doing chores that they should be doing as part of living in the home with you anyway, and not for cleaning up behind themselves either. It creates a "welfare mentality" by saying that someone HAS to pay me for what I should already, naturally be doing to participate, contribute, and help out around the house, be neat and clean. The 2nd school says that children should be rewarded for their participation and willingness to contribute to the family.

Yet I have found that when I gave my children allowance for completing chores and keeping the house clean then they only did their chores when they needed money or wanted money for something, otherwise I was fussin and yelling for them to do their chores and cleanup behind themselves. Once I eliminated allowance for that I tried the money for grades, with my daughter it worked she made AB honor roll from kindergarten to the 1st semester of 5th grade, my oldest son never quite worked for him he got C's and always ended up doing extra work around the house like babysitting when I needed girls night out or raking the yard for the land lord, and keeping the porch clean. So when it boils down to it I say keep in mind the individuality of your children and handle it accordingly. One may love to clean up the living room and getting paid for it, and the other may love to get A's and B's and earn money. But children should be taught to contribute to the cleanliness and overall flow of the home not wait for mom or dad or the cleaning people to come in and pick up behind them, some wife or husband will be very angry about it when they grow up and marry.
How much should be according to the age, effort, and completed product of the child, If you have to go back and clean it more because it is half clean then they get half the money, but show them first how clean you would like it to be versus how you would clean it!!!! they won't clean like you but they can get it as clean as you show them it should be. The amount can be in accordance with their age or with the size and value of the task.

Hope this helps in some way.

A.

We are foster parents and are required to have chores for the kiddos and also pay them allowance so that they can purchase things that they want to. We have made our children to save atleast 10% but they can save more if they want. We pay our children $0.05 a day for each year of age they are. Otherwise they will make way to much and when they do get out into the workforce they will expect a certain pay for little work. Our 1 yr old has to help pick up toys only, our 5 year old helps set and clear the table, fold and put away clothes, make bed, pick up toys, feed and water pets. We set what is required and most days she comes and askes if she can help me with other things. We do not even talk about it being an allowance or payment for doing her choirs. She gets the money no matter, and if choirs are not done and we have to continually get onto her about doing her jobs around the house she goes to timeout.

Don't know if this helps but with the amount of money that she gets per week is not much and she has to save for a while but once she does have the money to purchase whatever it is she has her eye on(such as babies or barbies), she seems to appreciate it more and takes care of the item better also.

I have a 10 and 12 yr old and I believe that it can be good for kids to get allowances. It teaches them to save up for the different things that they want but do not need. They are getting old enough to control a little something in their life now. They get very excited about their future purchases and my 10 yr old is actually beginning to save better!!!! They do chores (when homework allows). Every night the 10 yr old sets and clears the table. The 12 yr old does the dishes (I do the pots and cooking). We all chip in and get better quality time in the evening. I give them $3.00 each week and they do these chores about 4/5 times a wk...depending on homework and eating out. They can get a few dollars more if they do extra chores such as the 10 yr old may dust, clean mirrors, pull some weeds and the 12 yr old may vacuum, mop, dust, clean mirrors, or pull weeds. The system works very well for me and I feel that they are working/contributing for the extras and not just asking and receiving things so easily.
I determined the rate by how much I felt my girls should have each month on extra spending money. My older daughter usually gets more than my younger daughter, but she needs a little more. On big ticket items, I may pay a larger portion than my daughters based on good behavior. One nice side effect is that they sometimes buy each other special gifts.
Some great ideas for boys could be weeding, watering plants, sweeping side walks, taking care of pets. Have fun and enjoy the extra time you will have!!!

From what I have read, a good rule of thumb is to give children half of their age weekly for allowance.

Most experts disagree with tying allowance into chores. What I do for my kids is give them the opportunity to earn extra money by doing extra chores.

Last night, my son cleaned his little brother's room for 1000 Wii points. I also give poker chips, that are valued at $1 or $5 for good deeds and extras. The kids can trade in their chips for money when they want to buy something. I have a 13 year old, 12 year old and a 10 year old that this works well with. The poker chip method is good, because it keeps me from having to hand out cash when I might not have it, and it lets us plan shopping excursions when the kids want to buy something.

I don't do allowances.

1. they began to look at it as their right to be given money every week no matter how well they did their chores and it made a lot more work and arguements for me.

2. they began to look at every chore as how much it earned them rather than how much it helped the family.

3. My nephew even bragged about his and became boastful about recieving money.

What I did:

I told them school is your job just like I have a job. Sometimes it is fun, sometimes not. You make good grades, you get bonuses, like most employees do. You don't get good grades, no bonus and the possibility of being fired (kicked out/failing/whatever).

So each report card period they got money. $xxxx = All A's
$xxx = each A, xx = each B, x = each C, 0 = each D, -x = each F.

They make decent grade or at least try, they get money, they fail with no effort, they pay me! LOL They learned really quick. They also learned to budget to make it last for 6-9 weeks depending on the grading period.

To figure out how much they get, I sat down and decided what their normal expenses would be per week and multiplied by the number of weeks. For us normal expenses were 1-2 x buying lunch per week, 1 coke and 1 candy while out with friends, 1 extra dollar just to have to save, and x amount for tithing. Tithing was their choice but I did show them it did not take out of their lunch money--I had accounted for that. ;-)

When I asked for a chore to be done, there was no more, "How much does it pay, it is her turn, I did it yesterday, why me", or other comments. "Yes ma'm" was the only acceptable answer. And I also had to make sure I mixed things up. I had the boys wash dishes some nights and had the dd mow some days. ;-)

Oh and I had a list of xtra work for them with payment. They could sweep the porch, vaccumm the living room, etc. to earn extra money for projects.

Good luck

Ask your boys! Sit down and have a family meeting with them. If they are involved from the beginning it's much more likely they will do their jobs and be proud of their role in the family.