when is a good age for an allowance?

ArcticFox

This is one of those things I didn't even think about, but then one of our friends was talking about it.  And a bunch of you had mentioned the M&D responsibility chart, I thought that might be a good tie-in. 

DD was playing with quarters and a change purse the other day, so I started thinking it might be a good time to incorporate it in some way.  I just don't know when/how.  I've heard mixed things about money for doing chores.

Any thoughts, suggestions?

kada626

I'm curious what others do too. So far we have given dd some coins for doing random tasks, trying new foods, awarding good behavior. We are pretty random with it so she knows not to expect it.

Also, dd knows I work on the computer to earn money so she sometimes gets on her computer & says she is working to earn money too. She is really just playing the Fisher Price computer cool school working on her letters & writing words.  Usually once every couple weeks, I tell her she did a good job and give her coins to put in her piggy. It's more for fun. 

I try to stress the importance of saving money & teach her how much each coin is worth too. I heard good things about the M&D chart so maybe I'll check into that. The only chores dd does on a regular basis is picking up toys/clothes off the floor and setting the kitchen table so far. I haven't given her money for doing those. 

jlw2505

I would never do money for chores personally.  The way I look at it - we all live in our house so we are all responsible for the upkeep in some ways.  We do a very small allowance with our girls - they get a quarter once a week for their piggy bank.  At some point, we will let them use it and the allowance amount will go up.  As members of our family, they ahve things that they need to do daily just like me - all toys need to put away, clothes down the laundry shoot, help clear the table, etc.  We also expect them to be good listeners and helpful.  If they don't do these things, they lose things like reading time at bedtime and if they are doing really great for a lot of days, we'll do a special treat or prize.  We have a potty chart going for my 3 year old who has just recently potty trained and a behavior chart for my older DD but none of this is related to chores.

stephogirl

We just started giving our 5 1/2 year old DS an allowance. $5.00 a week. It feels a little high, but we wanted to address the issue of him getting things he wants. We only buy him toys for his birthday or Christmas, so anything else has to come from the random grandparent gift or if we find a crazy good deal at a garage sale. Anyway, he liked to look at toys in the store, and he would always ask if we could "put this toy on his Christmas/birthday list." Of course we would say, sure. No whining. He walks away from the toy aisle easily.

However, a couple of months ago, he became completely enamoured with a Lego fire station set that was, gulp, $80. I remembered listening to a podcast of a financial planner I really respect. She says that delayed gratification is very important to teach kids, but also try to remember that three weeks to a kid is like a lifetime. Message = make them wait for it, but help them figure out a way to get something they really want in a reasonable amount of time.

DS started doing chores around the house (when he asked if he could do something to earn money), above and beyond what he is normally expected to do. He would dust baseboards and help put laundry away, for example. Finally, we decided that the couple of dollars here and there he was saving was great, but it was going to take a really long time for him to buy this fire station set. So, we started him on an allowance. He has three jars - savings, sharing, and mad money. He has to put at least $2.00 a week in savings, at least $.50 a week in sharing (charity), and he can put the rest in mad money if he wants to. He can spend his mad money on anything.he.wants. He's decided to put $.50 in sharing and the rest in savings until he has saved enough money to buy the fire station. Then, he might start putting some in mad money.

Hope that helps somewhat. So far, it's worked really well for our family.

penguincrazy

We will be starting an allowance with DD around her 4th birthday.  I got a great idea from a seminar I heard (don't remember the name) about starting with a dollar in dimes and teaching titheing, saving, responsible spending that way.  It's easy to break down into percentages.  Allowance will not be tied to chores.  She'll get it whether they're done or not.  Chores are her responsibility as a member of the family.  If she fails to do them, there will be other consequences (not picking up after herself = loosing those toys for the day, etc.)  Just what we plan on.  HTH

RedCamaro

We started a good behavior chart and the only thing that my DD (she's 4) does as "chores" is to feed the cats twice a day. My DH didn't want to give money, but I tied her good behavior in with her allowance.