Monday, September 14, 2009

Your allowances have been met

My kids have asked me several times as to why they don't get an allowance. I said, "but I do give you an allowance." My daughter said, "Well, where is it?" And I had to break it down like this.
I allow you to live here
I allow you to sleep here
I allow you to eat here
I allow you to bathe here
I allow you to get dressed here
I allow you to ride in my car
I allow you to speak at times when you're not even spoken to - MUST I GO ON?

And then my daughter says, "Oh mom, you're too funny, I mean can we have it in payment." Sure thing kid, here you go:
I pay the electric bill - are the lights not on in their rooms?
I pay the water bill
I pay the car note and insurance in order to allow you to be chauffeured around
I pay the cable bill, mainly for hubby and me, but heck everybody can use it
I pay the mortgage that gives privileges to allow you to live here.....MUST I GO ON?
And the last thing I heard was Ugggggghhhhh!!! Ok, hopefully they get the point.

Lovingly yours,






9 comments:

  1. ok normally I agree with you on parenting but i dissent here. I absolutely hate this kind of thinking. My parents do it and i swear I would never do it with my children. Children don't ask to be born so when we have children the whole "well you live here, i pay for groceries" argument is moot b/c we didnt ask you to and it isn't a privilege for you to do it. It is a parental obligation.
    in my house, my child's allowance will be tied to two things, household chores and school behavior. As long as he is doing his part, i will gladly oblige the financial side (within reason)

    how was allowance handled in your household growing up?

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  2. Oh I may just borrow that and use it on my children. ;0))

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  3. I would like to offer another way of thinking about allowances. An allowance is not about just giving kids money to spend, and yes, it should not be given for things that kids do as their part in making the family household run each day.

    But, an allowance can be used to teach your kids how to spend, save and share money responsibly. If you don't take a lead role in teaching your kids good money skills who will? Schools certainly are not doing it.

    You can start your young kids managing a beginner's, four-part budget - Save, Spend, Share and Plan- by giving them some money to manage each week - an allowance.

    I can tell you from years of experience, you will see the "I Want it Now!, Mom" requests basically go away because you get to say "YES, you can have that, do you have enough money saved?" And if they don't have the money, they get to wait. They will also start to plan for things they want and learn to share some of what they have with others. A simple and balanced way to begin to learn how to handle money.

    I encourage you to start your kids managing a bit of money today. Go to www.moneywizdom.com and download a free Money Wizdom Quick Start Guide for getting your kids 5-8 year olds on a beginners budget. Four, simple steps to get started. (The free quick start guide for 9-12 yr olds will be posted in about 3 weeks.)

    I have been working with families for years and I want to see all kids get the training to handle money wisely. By letting kids manage an ever increasingly bigger budget as they age goes very far in building key foundational skills in money management.

    It is a great thing to do for your kids.

    I hope you will consider a different way of looking at allowances.

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  4. Too funny...My 7 year old gets a quarter for cleaning any room other than hers. What's funny is that she already has 16 quarters and wants to spend it on a toy~

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  5. I agree with Kingsmomma about the parental obligation, but my hubby thinks like Queen Bee.

    I have to disagree about the allowance for chores. We all live in the house, and if anyone should get paid, it should be ME (lol).

    Our children get money by showing initiative to do things without being told, reading books, and of course going outside the house to make extra money by cutting grass, washing cars, etc...oh yea, the grandparents are their favorite resource for money.

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  6. the thing i don't understand then how children are supposed to earn money. I agree with Denise with allowance being a way of teaching fiscal responsibility. You don't get rewarded for doing you chores or your schoolwork, instead you find that your allowance is docked because you slack in either of those departments.

    Allowance is necessary b/c children can not work until 16 and I would rather my child focus on school and as long as the school work is excellent then they'd have just about what they wanted as long as i could provide.

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  7. allowance is a privilege.. and not a necessity. if i work and provide everything for you, why do i need to give u pocket change too?

    now my child gets money for doing things that are not his responsibility..

    other than that, he gets a job well done and a thank you

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