THE ALLOWANCE By Kerrie McLoughlin
T
Conundrum
he word “allowance” might conjure up images of trust-fund kids and seems to hint at getting paid to do nothing. Poll a few of your friends about whether or not kids should get an allowance, and you’ll hear all sorts of answers. I’ve found there are several different camps on this issue, including those who believe kids should:
• Do chores because they get a place to sleep and food to eat • Be paid by the chore to learn the value of working for money • Receive a set amount of money every week to do chores as needed or • Be paid an allowance to learn how to manage money.
Michele Shimp is of Camp #1 but visits Camp #2 and said, “As for allowance, no, we don’t pay it. We decided that there are things the kids just have to do as members of the family: dishes, trash, laundry, feeding pets, cleaning room, mowing the lawn in the summer, the basics. However, they do have opportunities for money chores. These are chores out of the norm like cleaning the fridge, vacuuming the van, mowing a part of the lawn that is not your responsibility, cleaning a closet, etc.”
Weighing in for Camp #2, we have my husband. He pays a quarter per chore (called Chore Points) for things like emptying the dishwasher and gives maybe three Chore Points for something like cleaning the bathroom. Daniél Waters Minton has a different way of paying: “Max has always been able to earn money if he wants it. He gets 1 cent per minute, or 10 cents for 10 minutes, or $6/ hour. I break it down because sometimes he’s only got 25 minutes in him. He can earn it by doing chores outside of his normal expected stuff, or by babysitting his little brother.”
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The purpose of an allowance is to give your children the opportunity to learn how to manage money through their own successes and failures and the input of their parents. 16
Parents Press | September 2020
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