It’s All About The Benjamins…

September 13, 2008 at 8:38 am | In Blog Business, Kids | 3 Comments

Austin and Brodie bring up the idea of allowance A LOT lately. I am not opposed to the idea. In fact I can think of no better way to teach them about the value of money and not to mention saving. My problem lies in how to do it in a fair way that doesn’t make me want to pull my hair out. We did the chore chart thing in Plano and while it worked it was far more work for ME than I think is necessary. I mean, life is about making Mom’s job easier isn’t it?

I also don’t want all of their chores to be tied into allowance. I think kids need to know that part of their responsibility as a member of this house is to help with its maintenance. This is especially important to me since I have all boys and I DO NOT want them thinking that their future wives are their maids. Nothing would make me wring their necks faster. My future daughter in laws can thank me with lavish gifts and adoration. But, I digress….

Money….

I am careful of how we speak about money around the kids. Austin and Brodie know that there is a family budget. They know that their are certain things that must get paid before we spend on anything else. Austin will often ask, “Is this in the budget?” That makes me smile. I am also careful to not scare them about money. I think telling a kid, especially a younger kid that “We don’t have enough money for that” might lead them to think about what else we might not have money for. Do we have money for our house? For food? Whenever the boys ask for something, whether we can afford it or not, and I feel it is not in our best interest to make said purchase I try to phrase it as, “We are going to choose to not spend our money on that. We do not need it and we are going to choose to spend our money on other things that make more sense for us.” Though sometimes it comes out more as, “NOOOOOOOOO, for the billionth time NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.” You get the idea.

So, how to tie in allowance. I think we might make certain chores non-paying and make the bigger, extra jobs paying. Toilet cleaning…PAYING! Picking up your clothes off the bathroom floor and putting them in the dirty clothes…non-paying. Picking up the toys scattered throughout the house…non-paying. Changing your brother’s poopy diaper…a million gillion dollars. You get the idea.

Now if someone would just start paying me for changing dirty diapers and cleaning toilets…I would be RICH!

*this post brought to you by the fact that I really like free stuff and I want to win a free iPhone. Capital One is launching a site to help families learn how to manage their money. IT has some good information…as seen here. And here is where I learned about the contest. But really you shouldn’t enter…I mean if you enter that decreases my chances. Oh OK FINE….go enter*

3 Comments »

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

[...] It’s All About the Benjamins [...]

Pingback by Capital One Blog Blast This Weekend - Money Doesn’t Grow on Trees - Win an iPhone | The Parent Bloggers Network — September 13, 2008 #

Reply
Oh yes, chores…
We do an allowance system too. My ONLY issue is as time goes on they want $$ for every little thing that they should be doing anyways.
I tell you…these kids are smart.

Comment by laura — September 15, 2008 #

Reply
It sounds like you are doing a fantastic job with these boys! I like the fact that you are teaching them to be self sufficient even at such a young age. I tell my coworker all the time that she is ruining her boys for some woman some day by cooking for them and babying them like she does. LOL I’m sure your daughters-in-law will love you for making your guys independent and strong. As for the money, that is one area I know I fail as a parent!! I’m really bad with money, so it’s hard to teach something you never really learned yourself! haha I do know that giving an allowance to my daughter was the smartest thing I ever did. Now she spends her own money on things and often times she will decide to hold onto the cash. Funny how things are a necessity when Mom is paying but as soon as she realizes it’s going to come from her pocket it’s not quite as important of a purchase! I agree with your attitude about some chores being a responsibility and not a compensated job! Two thumbs up to you!!

Comment by T — September 15, 2008 #

Reply