The other day we were driving home from yet another trip to the beach when Graham said that he wanted to tell me something.
(He always prefaces anything he says with, “Mommy? I want to tell you something.” Then he actually tells me something.)
He told me that he needed a job so that he could make some money. I asked him what he needed money for and he said it was so that he could buy a lizard.
(Side note: A few days before this my brother found a small (4″) lizard in the yard. He captured it in a Ziploc container and presented it to the kids. The three of them stood in a row, batted their eyelashes at me, and then Emily said, “Can we keep the lizard, Mommy? Forever and ever?”
I told them to ask Daddy when he got home. He said that they could keep it, and there was much rejoicing in the land. The next morning they looked into the container and the lizard was…gone. WHICH MEANS THAT IT IS IN MY HOUSE SOMEWHERE.)
While buying a lizard is nowhere on my personal radar of purchases I need to make, I am happy that Graham wants to have a job so that he can make some money. I asked him what job he wanted to do and he said that he wanted to have a toy store. Well, OK.
We got home and after the sound of a small table being dragged and a lot of toy drawers slamming he came back inside. He asked me to peel the price tags off of some of our recent purchases and ventured back outside. Daddy and Uncle Lance came home for supper and as we enjoyed our meal, he told us of our grand master plan to run a toy store. Best quote of that night:
“Uncle Lance? One of the toys is only $3.38. YOU SHOULD TOTALLY BUY IT.”
Oh, my little salesman.
The next morning the boys ventured outside to their store before their sister had even woken up. They told me that they were ready to open shop, so I showed up with my camera in hand.
A close-up of the goods:
Upon taking these, I was a little bit in shock at the toys that he picked. Lightning McQueen? Spiderman? Bumblebee? OPTIMUS PRIME? These are his favourite toys! I thought he’d pick the dejected toys. He must really want money.
We went to the beach with Auntie Jennifer and Co. and upon our return he resumed his station. After an hour or so of sitting at his table with nary a customer, he was discouraged. He hadn’t sold a single toy! How was he going to make money?
I reminded him that we live in THE BUTT-POKE OF NOWHERE. The only people who come to our house are friends we have invited over or Jehovah’s Witnesses who want to convert the heathen folks who live in Faulder.
Graham is discouraged. He wants to have a business that does well (He comes by his entrepreneurial spirit honestly) and doesn’t know what his “job” should be. Matthew and I have pondered allowances but waver between whether we should do them or not. I would love to hear your thoughts on allowances. This is new territory for us.
I’m thinking they’d be a lot easier than trying to sell Graham’s wares at a sketchy flea market, but what do I know?
Annalie has been doing chores in a semi-regular fashion since she turned 4. Her jobs are to feed the cats and help empty the dishwasher. She also often washes the table, counters, and mirrors for me because she likes using the spray bottles, but hey, whatever works! We give her a small allowance ($2/week) in a VERY haphazard fashion (i.e., we forget to actually give her money most of the time and when she remembers to ask we sort of estimate how much we owe her).
We clearly don’t really have the allowance thing figured out either. But with us it’s more of an organization problem. Also, we don’t give Annalie a choice about doing chores, she does them when we ask, period. If she does them without whining, she gets points that theoretically go towards some kind of treat…we have yet to figure that whole thing out either. So far, just talking about how God wants us to work with all our hearts at whatever we do, and also about how she wouldn’t like it if I whined and complained each time she asked for food or for me to read her a story, has been working pretty well.
Uh, never mind. I’m clearly not qualified on this topic AT ALL.
bethany actually’s last blog post..if only all midnight wakings were that easy
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Very cute story
We have considered the whole allowance (pocket money) thing too, and are still unsure about it. While I think having their own money would help my boys learn about saving, spending, etc, I like to think that they help around the house now because they know it is EXPECTED. Because we all pitch in, and do our bit. I worry that giving them pocket money for doing chores makes it all a bit of a, well, chore. I guess once Tyler is at school, we will have to start giving them some money. I might come up with a special job each of them has to do each week to earn it (like collecting the rubbish from all the bins, or helping stack firewood), while the other day-to-day “pitch in and help” jobs (tidying rooms, putting away toys, helping set/clear the dinner table, helping fold washing) remain things that they willingly do because we ask them to help out. I don’t know!?
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My youngest, when he was nine, made business cards that proclaimed he was a private investigator with ‘no job too big or small’.
witchypoo’s last blog post..Have You Lost Weight?
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So cute! Bless their hearts. As for allowance, we give the kids their age in dollars each month. They have to tithe 10% and save 10% and the rest is theirs to spend. Seems to work for us. Good luck!
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That’s so cute!
I don’t give Josh an allowance yet (he’s 6) but I pay by the chore – usually $.25 for stuff like feeding the cat or putting away laundry. Sometimes I pay more for bigger jobs. It always surprises me what he’s capable of – he even vacuumed the other day! Anything he can do with a spray bottle and a roll of paper towels is fun to him! (I don’t pay him to put away his own toys though – I consider that his own responsibility.)
All those quarters add up! He has a job jar he keeps his change in until it’s full enough to bring it to the bank. He has to put half in the bank and gets to keep half to spend. It works out really well.
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With my daughter, she has one chore each day that she has to do. These include sweeping, vacuuming, dusting, taking out the garbage, etc. Each ‘daily chore’ is a chore that needs to be done once per week. She also HAS to help with dishes when necessary, setting the table, making dinner and clearing… all the tasks for daily life.
Our theory is that you live in the house, you have to help maintain it, which is why the daily jobs are expected without renumeration, but we also wanted her to figure out budgeting, and I just couldn’t see giving her an allowance without SOME jobs attached to it.
She gets $10 per week (she’s 12. It was much less when she was younger), but $3 has to go into her penny pig weekly. She has to pay for all of her own field trips / guide camps / etc. now, but that is allowed to come out of her pig.
We started the $3 in her pig system at the end of June, when she had two Guide camps, a year book, and a field trip within two weeks, and I got tired ofher coming to me with her hand out. This way she has to save and pay her own way, and maybe sometimes make decisions about what she is going to do based on the funds that she has.
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My sister and I always got allowances that were predicated on us completing our chores for the week. It was a good system. The amount, obviously, increased as we got older. But it wasn’t free money, and not just because we had to do our chores to get it. Because we had our own sources of “income,” my parents didn’t just buy us stuff that we wanted. Sometimes they would, but for the most part if we asked for something they would tell us that if we wanted it, we could use our own money to pay for it, or receive it as a gift for the next holiday. This worked well and prevented us from getting a lot of junk that we didn’t really want, because when it came down to decide if we REALLY wanted it enough to spend our own money on it, or have it be one of a limited number of birthday/Christmas gifts, we would often decide we didn’t want it THAT much.
Jess’s last blog post..Daily routines
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I’d have a “chores” list that could change weekly (share jobs between all the kids?) and when they have accumulated their check-marks, then they get their money. Maybe each check-mark is worth 10c or whatever… then they know, the more work they do, the more they get… there may be a week where one does a lot of work and another doesn’t… the one who didn’t will realise that he didn’t get all the money he could have
I like allowances. I mean, we grow up and we have an allowance, right? It’s called a pay-cheque
You aren’t spoiling them, as long as they’re doing the work…
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My son would so take that Buzz Lightyear, even though we already have 5 and I think one just like it. We also have that same Lightning McQueen.
We kinda pay my 5 year old a small allowance, but neither his chore enthusiasm or the money are very consistent.
C @ Kid Things’s last blog post..Have You Met Ralph?
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I can’t remember what age we started allowances, but it was pretty young. For us it was in response to them always asking us to buy them things. You can’t tell them to buy it themselves if they have no income. But when faced with spending their own money, they sometimes realize they don’t really want/need it that bad. We started out with a small amount each week of which they were to put ten percent in the offering, save ten percent and do whatever they wanted with the rest. It also taught us a valuable lesson in letting them make their own mistakes on what they buy. Many times they wanted to buy something we knew would break or somehow disappoint, yet they ‘had to have it’. But because it was their own money, we ultimately had to let them decide how they’d spend it and it taught them to think twice about what you spend it on. Also, we didn’t start giving all three kids allowances at once. We started with the oldest and the older they got, the more money they got. It was something the younger kids looked forward to, and something that made the oldest child feel important. To me, the biggest benefit to starting young with allowances, saving and tithing is that when they are older, it becomes second nature. As they start to get paychecks instead of an allowance, and the amount is in the hundreds instead of pocket change, it isn’t as much of a struggle to put a percentage in the bank and in the offering.
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Totally cute. Good luck G!
Elizabeth’s last blog post..Thar She Grows
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allowances are EXCELLENT. i do not believe that they should be tied to chores, b/c that makes them more about being paid to be an active participant in the house. but pocket money to learn how to budget? excellent plan. i had an allowance, my brother did not b/c my parents came to the conclusion that allowances were pointless since they were buying everything for me anyway, and guess which of the two of us cannot keep track of his money now if his life depended on it? obviously, a little allowance is not going to make them financially independent, but it’s a great of way of teaching the kids that THEY can in fact plan for and be responsible at least a couple of their desired extras, whether it’s a lizard or a shiny new toy.
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We haven’t instituted any kind of allowance yet here either but my kids don’t often ask us to buy them things ( I KNOW, I am in as much shock as you).
They both have things that they have to do around the house to help out, the usual type of things, make beds, tidy toys, put laundry away etc but I don’t want to tie money to that because they have to do those things no matter what.
Kami’s Khlopchyk’s last blog post..I’m Back
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So cute!
I’m all for allowances. We had a responsibility chart for Abby and if she had everything checked off that week she’d get her $1.
Here are some links if that does interest you.
Free Printable Responsibility Charts
http://orgjunkie.com/2009/05/free-printable-responsibility-chore-charts.html
Age Appropriate Responsibilities
http://www.new-life.net/age-specific-responsibilities/
Now our problem is just sticking to it, remembering to check off the chart and having change accessible come chore time.
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I agree with the pp about linking chores to allowance to a degree. We told her that everyone in our house has responsiblities and we all need to do our share to keep our house clean and running smoothly. We told her that if she was being a helpful part of the family, she’d get some of the benefits like being able to treat herself to a toy, etc.
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Give him a new job that can make him money like cleaning his room or loading the dishwasher or something like that. That’s what we’ve done with Ben. Ben is also earning money because the tooth fairy keeps showing up late and when she does she feels guilty and leaves more $$. haha.
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once an entrepreneur, always an entrepreneur. I had the exact same toy store, also the classic lemonade stands. i lived on a lake, so when people came back from boating in the hot sun, they would often give me 10 bucks to run back to my house and make more lemonade. in the winter, i would offer ice-fisherman hot chocolate and cookies. i was on snowmobile, so some fisherman would just pay to have me LEAVE THEM THE HECK ALONE. I was scaring the fish away. I also ran a worm business, digging up buckets of worms and taking care of them to sell to fisherman. Now? I run my own swim school! Wonder what your little entrepreneur will become! About the allowance… I never had allowance, but my husband did and we plan on giving our children their age/ week for allowance. And allowance is not going to be tied to chores. We all have to be part of the household responsibilities. there’s my 3.5 cents
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I know I would totally pay for help in my yard! We always have dog poop to pick up, garden beds to weed and sidewalks to sweep (something a guy his age could do, right?).
On the subject of allowances, our pastor had an interesting take last Sunday: give your children allowances but don’t say that it is in payment for something. They should be responsible for chores regardless, but think of the allowance as an extension of your parental grace towards your children (as God graces His children with certain blessings). I don’t have kids and am not an expert, but it was such a different concept, I was intrigued. I’ll have to file that one away for the day this issue appears in our household!
Kate’s last blog post..…with unhealthiness and taxes for all.
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since our little bean just turned one, we’re not facing this yet. but we’ve talked about it some.
growing up (in a family of 13) i never got an allowance. however, i remember around xmas, we could do extra chores so that we could get a little bit for us to buy gifts for some of our bros/sis.
The Mr. never had an allowance, either. but i believe he also got money every so often for doing some “big” job.
we both saved bday & holiday money like crazy.
we will probably do this same for jovie. chores should be done as a matter of principle & responsibility. but there are extra things (say, rake the yard, or clean the cat litter, wash the car) we will probably pay for.
when she gets money through the years, we will have her save most of it. 1/2 for her 529 college account, and 1/2 for “fun” money savings. we’d probably let her spend some of the money right away so she could enjoy it as part of the holiday it was given.
also, one thing i really thought was neat that The Mr.’s parents did was “payment matching”. if he reallllllly wanted something that was a little out of his league (i’m talking $20 or so), his parents would say that if he could come up w/ half, they would match his funds.
sounds like a 401k plan to me!
we do think that in order to understand money (and the pitfalls of credit) is to get some. earning it is a great way to do that. it sounds like your little one certainly has his head in the right game.
good luck!
mpotter’s last blog post..one down…
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Awwww!!! He must really be serious about this lizzard thing if he is willing to sell those toys! $3.38? A great deal for Uncle Lance!
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Although we aren’t at the allowance phase yet I have a pretty good idea of how we plan to handle it. Once we were old enough to help with small things around the house – making our beds, setting the table, cleaning up our toys we were expected to help. My Mom always told us, helping around the house was part of being a family, a family was a team and that meant everyone took part. However, she also grew up in a house where they weren’t taught financial responsiblity and wanted to teach us that long before it ever became an issue, to save us from what she had to go through to learn how to handle money.
Right around 5 years old we started getting an allowance. It wasn’t much but it was something. Our allowance wasn’t really a payment for things done around the house because like I mentioned above those things were expected, it was rather a small reward for good behaviour and even more her tool for teaching us about proper money management – tithing, saving, spending… Whether we did our regular chores or extra our allowance amount remained the same, but if we put up major fusses about said responsiblities or were particularily difficult to deal with we knew our allowance was on the line.
I learned a lot from my allowance leasons, and they went a long way in teaching me how God asks us to handle our money. We plan to do the same with our kids, good luck on your decision!
Ashley’s last blog post..Audrey Acapella
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We are pro-allowance. But the dough is not connected to chores in any way. They are part of the family and are expected to pitch in. Likewise, they are part of the family and are as entitled as any of us for a little spending money.
Also, I’m way too disorganized to keep track of a chore chart.
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