Family Briefs

Let me begin by telling you I submitted a post to the Carnival of Family Life, hosted this week by My Two Boys. It’s a great read, and you’ll find lots of entertaining stories by other parents!

Speaking of entertaining . . . there are some great entertaining stories over at Chilihead’s place. She’s also got an interesting carnival going about chores and allowance. I thought since she offered, I’d throw in my 2 cents worth!

One of the most helpful books I’ve found that deals with the topic of allowance for children is The First National Bank of Dad. My husband stumbled across this book in the library, and we proceeded to check it out countless times until they refused to let us check it out anymore before I finally gave it to him for Father’s Day.

The book is just chock full of great ideas about giving your child an allowance; ways to set up a “bank” for your child to learn about earning interest, saving, and spending money; and teaching your children the true sense of value beyond money. It is such an easy and entertaining read, I’d recommend it for any parent!

The author, David Owen, dedicates an entire chapter to allowance. What’s his take on the matter of allowance and chores? “I believe that children should be given allowances, and I believe that children should do household chores, but I don’t believe the two activities should be linked.” He warns that children might decide that they’re o.k. with not getting paid to do a chore for a while and opt out - YIKES! Then what do you do???

An allowance is needed to help teach children how to handle money, in addition to providing them with some spending money of their own. He argues that most chores are just part of what’s required in being a part of a family, although he leaves room to pay kids for jobs that go beyond their regular responsibilities (washing the car, raking the leaves, cleaning out the attic, etc.).

We’ve tried a whole host of ideas to handle chores in our house: chore charts, a chores calendar, chore lists, chore checklists. We’ve even tried issuing chore rewards. What we’ve found that is true of so many children’s activities, is that none of these work unless they are parent-driven. You can’t expect to sit around eating bon-bons while your kids flit around the house doing all their chores without complaint. Let’s be realistic!

What is working for us right now is a write-on/wipe-off board for me to keep up with what jobs need to be done (I’m just not organized enough to do laundry every Tuesday). I assign age-appropriate chores to each child, writing the job by each child’s name. These are usually performed during our regularly scheduled “job-time” each day. (I’ve found there is less resistance if it’s just something on the schedule instead of something I’m asking them to do .)

We’ve put some of David Owen’s ideas into practice, including setting up “checking accounts” in Quickbooks for our two oldest. It’s not much, but neither are much into money needs either (I’m sure that’s a problem lurking just around the corner, however). At the end of every month, I record their allowance for the whole month (instead of making an entry every week). For simplicity’s sake, we haven’t started paying them interest yet. I’m sure they’ll wise up and force our hand soon enough!

On the occasion that one of the boys DOES want to buy something, we argue discuss the practicality of the purchase (value of the item, if we already have something similar, etc.). If he wins me over, I pay for the item and simply deduct the money from his account. This way, I’m the only one responsible for having any money available to spend .

The First National Bank of Dad: The Best Way to Teach Kids About Money, has some wonderful ideas that we refer back to often. I highly recommend this book for anyone with young children.

How do you divvy up the family chores at your house? And how does paying an allowance figure into this? I’d love to hear your ideas!