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Practical Creativity for Everyday Life and Parenting
When our kids were growing up, we never used the word “allowance” in our house. I made that decision partly because the concept of an allowance sounded to me like entitlement, on the one hand, and loss of agency on the other. If you get an allowance simply for being someone’s offspring, that sends a message of entitlement. But the word “allowance” also means the parent is allowing the child to receive a sum of money, and could at any moment decide the child was not allowed that sum. When I was a kid, the first thing my mother did to punish me for small infractions was take away my allowance.
When my kids were little, they were expected to help around the house. When they were pre-teens, though, we offered them the opportunity to earn a “paycheck” in exchange for doing regular chores. The paycheck was determined based on age and the difficulty of chores, etc. There were rules attached to the paycheck, of course:
– They had to complete all chores by Sunday night of each week or apply for an extension if, for example, they were gone to a tournament for the weekend. And their dad and I were free to inspect their work before paychecks were distributed.
– They could collect their paychecks as early as Sunday night, if all their chores were done, or as late as Wednesday night. If they forgot to ask for their…
