The Pay Off

We never got an allowance as kids. I think my parents did say once upon a time that they would pay us a quarter for every 15 minutes of piano practicing we did but I don't remember ever getting paid. I'm not sure if that was because they didn't hold up their end of the bargain or if we just didn't practice long enough to earn anything.

I don't believe Chris got an allowance either but he did earn money for good grades.

For these last few years we've gone back and forth with the idea of paying an allowance or not. We didn't want to pay our kids to do jobs that were just expected to be done as part of a family. But we did feel it was important to teach them about money, tithing, and working for things. Back in AK I did set aside some cleaning jobs for Zach so he could earn some money. Pennies, nickles, and dimes really didn't go far but at age 3. I don't think he ever spent any just collected and frankly the jobs were performed at a 3 year old level....but he was getting the idea.

Now that we have a houseboy helping me do many of the chores the boys were left with no chance to earn money and us as parents wondering how we could instill the "working hard" for the things we want concept. Over the last several months they have been asking what they could do to earn money.

Basically I made a chore chart of little jobs for them such as putting dishes away after meals, reading, making their beds, dressing themselves, etc. Many of these things are not difficult but I wanted some parts of my day to go smoother such as teeth brushing time and having them dress themselves. So far we are a month into it and some things have definitely become smoother and others they still just don't do. To earn their money I will not nag them but give one or two gentle reminders. For every ten chores they do they earn 1 SAR which equals about .25 USD. We can also add on additional chores as needed. Frankly I'm happy to pay them if they do a chore/task quickly and without fussing for 20 minutes about it.


The real deciding factor in doing this was I HATE, DETEST, ABHOR, taking my children to the store. They want to buy everything and anything. I've had to take Ethan kicking and screaming out of the commissary over not buying him a roll of purple yarn for Pete's sake. Vacations were becoming difficult b/c they wanted everything in the shop windows and were sometimes doing the grab and go.

After our trip to Dubai we'd had enough and commenced the job chart and from now on they have been told that we will not buy them treats at the store. If it is not on my list it is their responsibility to buy it.

So did it work????
Yes it has! We have bought better behavior and helpfulness around the house from our children.

Between losing teeth, birthday money, and chores Zach has a nice little stash and two weeks ago we put this concept to the test. We had a bit of shopping to do in town. I had run out of birthday gifts to have on hand so I had to do the unthinkable.....take my children to the toy section and pick out gifts. We did the usual prep...don't go crazy we aren't buying for you and you can pick out stuff for your friends but we won't be buying for you. So after about 3.5 seconds they went nutso filling the cart with everything under the sun for their friends of course but also for themselves. After putting it back and reminding them that they had their own money to spend things went back to normal.

In the end Zach did find a Ben 10 Hot Wheel car he wanted and had enough money. Ethan wanted one too so very badly but didn't have enough. He fussed a bit, but lesson learned....he just hasto do more chores.

After the yarn incident I swore never to take Ethan to the store again....but since we have some new guidelines and rules I decided to try again. So with a pocket full of money we headed out. I got the few things we needed and he shopped with his own basket. It was such a pleasant experience....other than it took him ages to decide just how to spend his wad. I was shocked at how well he understood what he could and couldn't afford. The purple yarn was still in the running but in the end he came home with these......
....and a smile on mom's face.

This week we had an FHE on tithing, saving money, and budgeting to help further this process.