Allowance

I get asked a lot about allowance.  How much should I give?  When should I start giving it?  Is it a good idea?  I will never forget hearing Barbara Coloroso on tape once, around 20 years ago talking about allowance.  Someone in the audience asked her about being paid for chores.  Her reply was:  “How many of you here tonight got paid for doing the dishes?”  She’s absolutely right, I thought.  Why should we be paying kids for simply doing their part in the running of a household?  We all pitch in because it’s the right thing to do when we live in community.  What happens when we pay kids for doing simple day to day tasks?   When we ask them to help us with something they want to know how much they’re going to get paid.  They develop a “What’s in it for me” attitude. 

Do I think kids should get allowance?  Yes!  It’s essential they learn the value of money, how to spend wisely and how to save.  How can they learn those skills if they don’t have money?  Once I clued into this when my kids were growing up, it very quickly eliminated the constant:  “I want, I want”.  They got a certain amount of money every week that was to be used for the extras like any toys or electronics they wanted.  When we were at the mall and they said “Can I buy this?”, my response was “Do you have enough money”?  Usually, that was the end of it.  When they got into their teens, they got a bi-weekly allowance that was to be used for clothes and entertainment.  They very quickly learned to prioritize and it motivated them to get a job when they turned 16 because they soon learned their money wasn’t going very far. I remember the first time they each got $100 which was to last the month.  They were esctatic because they’d never been given that much all at once.  Within a week it was gone.  They had to wait 3 weeks before they got paid again.  The next month, they were much better.  Each month they learned a little more.  I promised myself I would not give them any advances or loans because I felt I would be doing them no favor.  The idea was to teach them about money. 

We’re all being given a huge wake-up call right now with respect to money.  We’ve been over spending and relying heavily on credit.  I think it’s our responsibility as parents to teach our kids when they’re young how to live within their means and that delaying gratification is a good thing.  It also forces us to take a hard look at our own spending habits and know what we’re passing on to our kids.  Are our own habits ones we’re proud of and want our kids to learn?