Chores and allowance

Has anyone figured out how to do allowance and chores in a fair manner? I change the way I do this with my kids every month or so because I haven’t found a perfect way to do it. I like to give my children money/allowance to help them learn several skills:

• saving (for something big or little)
• sharing (tithing for church or charities)
• planning (what will you use your money for)
• teach child that things are not free (they sometimes have to buy their own toys or treats)
• a little math (counting money and subtracting/counting up towards goal)

Chores

My children do not have a long list of chores: they are all responsible for keeping their room clean/organized, I occasionnally ask them to vaccum, put clothes in wash or dryer, they sometimes have to sweep. My oldest is responsible for loading the dishwasher, his siblings for unloading it. They help clean the bathrooms and take out the trash. I have them help me with the baby when needed and my oldest helps watch his brothers and put them to bed when I got on a date with my husband. Since my mother in law lives with us, we pretty much always have an adult in the house. My oldest does take the pictures for most of my blog Monday fashion pictures.

The children are expected to help and raise up to our expectations sometimes with a little whining but since it is not a long list, they usually are pretty compliant. Right now their allowance is tied in with their chores: the oldest is paid for his job of taking my pictures and is expected to do the rest of his jobs/chores, his brothers have a chore chart that I am supposed to sign for them to get “paid”.

Allowance

Whether I call it allowance or chore money, I pay the children according to their age: for a while, I gave the children their age money (12 year old:$12, 8 year old:$8..) but only every other week. My oldest is trying to save for something big so I am trying to pay them weekly now according to what fits in the budget. So right now he gets $10, his siblings $5 and $3.

It is interesting to see how the 2 oldest are saving their money for the most part while my 5 year old typically spends his money when he sees a small toy he wants. He will learn the value in not buying every little gadget as he gets more mature.

A bientôt!

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