We changed up the way we do allowance a few months ago. This was partly in preparation for our trip and mostly the result of a Love and Logic presentation I got to attend through our Relief Society. The basic premise of our current system is that the childrens' responsibilities fall into one of two categories: family chores and extra chores. Family chores are those things we do everyday because we are part of a responsible, hard-working family - making beds, practicing piano, setting the table, homework, morning and evening routine stuffs, etc.. They don't get allowance for these tasks. Extra chores include extra cleaning and work done inside and outside the house - bathrooms, vacuuming, weeding, cleaning out cars, sweeping, dusting, etc.. They get paid a commission for each extra chore.
I saw lots of different ways of doing this, but we have kept it extremely simple. There is a piece of scratch paper that lives on the side of our fridge that has Grace and Grant's name on it. They get to put a tally mark under their name each time they complete an extra chore. At the beginning of Family Night each week, we total up the tally marks and the kids get $0.50 per extra chore paid out in dimes and nickels (this makes it easy for them to calculate and pay tithing). Then, a new piece of scratch paper is put on the fridge for the next week's tallies. Cori and I determine what the extra chores are as the kids ask to do them, and we determine how many tallies they are worth - some jobs are bigger than others and I didn't feel like subscribing detailed amounts to every task to be done around here. Most extras are worth just one tally though, the exceptions are few.
The G's were already competent at comparing the amount in their pockets with the amount on a price tag. But with this new way of earning, there seems to be a little more reality associated with what an item is actually worth. Saving up for things is now a matter of work to be done rather than a matter of weeks to be waited.
They both spent up all their money at Disney World - Grant will tell you how he did over 40 extra chores for the light saber pictured above. He came home from his weekend of cousin fun with something new to save up for - Star Wars Legos, The Complete Saga for the Wii. So we looked it up on Amazon, talked about buying new vs. used, and figured out how many extra chores would be required for its purchase. The next day he told me he wanted to do extra chores all day long- and he wasn't kidding.
So, it seems to be working well for us for this chapter of our family life. The one complaint I have about the system is that, at their tender ages, I can't turn the kids loose on a lot of these tasks. Especially Grant- for having so many anti-social tendencies, that kid HATES doing anything by himself. So giving them extra work equates to me and Cori (but mostly me) doing the extra work with them. The hope is that they will learn how to do the tasks well, and sooner than later it will turn into less work for everyone. Surely things will need to be tweaked as everyone gets older.
How do you do allowance?
3 comments:
I love this post, mostly because we have been in the allowance tweaking process ourselves. I love your tally marks on the fridge part - gonna steal that one. For us we call it "pay day" and the money they earn is based in the things they do. However we realized that we have been having problems in two areas of our family, 1) our recognizing all the good our kids already do, and 2) whining. Those two problems were easily fixed with the way we do allowance now. They get one point a day for being helpful with the younger siblings (playing with them, fetching bottles and diapers etc.) they get a point/day for doing jobs cheerfully and not whining and crying, and then points for other jobs too. Now when our daughter throws a fit about doing homework or bed time we can say, "oh no! Bummer! Looks like you don't get a "no whining point" today. We'll have to try again for that one tomorrow." On pay day she sees that she is getting much less than her brother who never whines. Suddenly her actions have a consequence and it has changed her behavior significantly. We definitely won't always do things this way, but it has helped the learning process at this point in their development and our tick marks are only worth five cents so we aren't breaking the bank over it.
we revamped our allowance system at the beginning of the year as well. i took the model shawni eyre pothier (a fellow arizonian for you!) outlines on her blog "71 Toes" and then tweaked it a bit to fit our family's schedule and needs. it has worked so well -- a lot less whining and a lot more earning -- i could say all the same things you said in this post. sometimes it really does equate to more work for me and jay but at the same time we are teaching our kids to be hard workers and what earning really means. priceless lessons, right? we have both hawaii and disney in the vacation plans for 2013 so we know that the kids are going to want to spend when in these great places and they have really been saving as a result, another lesson that is priceless. i love the photo you included of grant -- their faces gleam when they have worked hard, saved up and then bought something they really want. makes you feel good as a mama!
I do just give my kids allowance. But I also offer extra chores for things that are extra. Their allowance isn't tied to anything and I don't take it away for any reason. I also expect them to save 10% no matter what and to pay tithing. I give it to them once a month and this is my favorite part because it requires budgeting for an entire month. I never give loans even if they have the money at home and their savings is for their first car. They have bought disneyland passes and clothes and big other things and for those things I will pay half.
My kids are also responsible for a lot of chores and if they can't do a chore they are capable of doing right they do it again and get another one. The older they get the easier this is.
I like the idea of tallies but I would never remember to give money out and it would make calculating tithing very difficult for me. I do realize I am a little scatter- brained in this area.
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