Do you believe in giving Monthly allowance or pocket money to kids in exchange for chores in the house.
My parents were dead against it. So is my husband. He doesn’t want to introduce to the concept of “you get paid to clean you own house, room” etc. He believes that if kids need something - they should ask for it. He also believes that children should concetrate on learning rather than earning at such a young age.
But what’s wrong with giving them $1 for windexing the dinner table? And let them save for toys etc. Or with elder kids - $20 bucks to mowing the lawn etc. Doesn’t that teach them value of a dollar?
Were you given allowances at when growing up? Share your experiences and parenting approach.
I Personally agree with your parents and husband.
At this age its better to introduce the concept of gifts if they achieve a certain target.
But not for doing chores in the house .They should do it for help and not for earning.
you should feel very lucky that your husband has such an outlook.. especially in respect to money and kids... i know of quite a few dads that dont buy their kids stuff and ask them to just save up until they can buy on their own... really sad.
i never got pocket money as a kid... my dad firmly believed in what ure husband is saying... if we wanted something, we just went and asked.. sometimes we got it immediately and sometimes we had to wait.. that was how we didnt get spoiled. heck we were in uni and dad still didnt want us to get jobs.. he wanted us to give or undivided attention to our studies... mein hu, job kiss liye cahiye.. im paying for everything.. u just study. ...
as for doing stuff around the house and getting paid for it.. dad just said one line to us when we argued bout it with him...
beta.. tum maasi ho? dekho.. we have a miad that comes and cleans the house.. and we pay her. that is her job. now.. if u want to play maasi.. i can always pay u ... but is taht what u really want to be .. a maid? other than that.. dad always explained to us kids that if we live in the house and use everything in it.. its our responsibility to keep it clean etc...
its not a hostel where stuff is foreign.. its ure home and everything inside is ure to keep in good condition.
i wont be giving my kid any pocket money earned by cleaning the house or doing chores.. i will give him money when he goes out with friends... and i always want him to come to me and ask for anything he wants...
this early shove in their childhood to earn money rids them of their innocence i think..
no stories of beta, mein tho 5 saal ka tha jub se kama raha hu thank u very much.
as for teaching them about the importance of good spending and money... trust me.. there are way better ways to teach them that. like i said.. never got pocket money.. just took whenver i wanted.. and still i knew when to spend and when not to.
I got an allowance from both parents AND my brother, but I never did anything to deserve it really. :D
Honestly, maybe you may call this spoiled ro whatever....but I hate that there should be any "hesitation" or too much pride in asking parents for money, especially little children should never feel like that.
If you really want to teach them the value of a dollar or how to save up (which I agree is very important) try to start when they're older, like in HS...
I got an allowance....not for doing chores though....don't know why I got it.
But I did like what my parents did to teach us about the value of money and managing it properly. We were not allowed to use all of our allowance. We had to put some of it for "saving" and we did not get the next months allowance until we could show our parents where we spent the money.
we didn't get an allowance, we asked for what we wanted and most of the time we didn't get it (the non essentials - toys and stuff) but we did get presents on eid.....
We saw our parents being careful spenders, and I did work thru college both undergrad and grad school.... really helped me realize the value of a dollar and plus I was getting scholarships as well....so was very very careful with my spending...and still am ...
We were given money when we were going out with friends, and for younger siblings when they were in high school they did start getting money to buy lunch or go out...parents were really strict with the older kids...no money take lunch from home.... and we weren't really allowed to go out a lot...but I guess we were the guinea pigs...
I love it that we desis don't pay our kids to do chores around the house... it just creeps into our lives as adults...and that can't be good... I can't imagine expecting my hubby to pay me for keeping our home clean or maintaining it....
We did get lots of eidi...and our parents encouraged us to use that money to save or buy what we wanted so lessons were learnt from that too...
We got an allowance, but it was not tied to doing chores. Chores were to be done regardless. Just because we were members of the family, we had to contribute. There was never any, "Do this job and I'll pay you X amount of money." It did help us learn to save and budget. Mind you, I am frugal like anything and my brother is up to his ears in debt, but if not for the fact that we look very much like each other (and not like either of our parents!), I would swear one of us was switched at birth in the hospital...