What chores do your kids do? Allowance?

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-28-2008
What chores do your kids do? Allowance?
14
Sun, 12-28-2008 - 11:41pm
Hi~ I'm new here. I have 2 girls, 10.5yrs & 2yrs. I have gotten away from the chore charts, and

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iVillage Member
Registered: 01-06-2006
Mon, 12-29-2008 - 12:10am

Welcome!!! My kids (dd 8 and ds 12) both have chores and get an allowance for doing them. Ds (12) takes out the garbage, unloads the dishwasher, clears the table after dinner, is supposed to keep his room neat, and one or two other things I can't think of at the moment. DD (8) feeds the dog, swooshes the toilet and swipes the counters in the bathroom almost daily, folds towels, and sets the table for dinner.

They get a dollar for every year of their age. It seems like alot but it is divided in three parts (spend, save, and share). They also pay for anything they "want" and if they lose or break something (goggles - they're both swimmers, socks, gloves, etc.) they have to pay to replace it or do without.

Hope this helps (HTH)

Hope you stick around. This is a great place!!!

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-06-2000
Mon, 12-29-2008 - 8:48am

My daughter is 12, but has had the same jobs for a while - at least 2 or 3 years.


She basically helps me with everything, and we tend to work together or I just ask her to do something rather than having a list of things she accomplishes on her own.


Unloading the dishwasher - she can do it on her own, or we work together.

Laundry - she can do it herself in regards to the machines, we all fold our own stuff

Trash - she walks around the house gathering small cans and brings them to me in the garage for dumping

Cleaning -

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Mon, 12-29-2008 - 10:35am

Welcome to the board! I have the philosophy that my kids should help out in whatever way I need them to, so I don't have a lot of "assigned" chores but I do have a lot of things they help me with. I absolutely refuse to pay my kids to do these tasks, they are expected to help out because we are a family and we work together to make things clean and healthy and presentable. My issue in paying them for chores is what do you do when they don't need the money and now refuse to do the chores? I want my kids to help out as valued members of our family unit, and I provide them with money and things they need as valued members of our family, the two are not connected. I can totally see my teen deciding he has plenty of money, so no, he'd rather not take out the trash, you know? So I don't pay for that, I just expect it.

I go back and forth on the allowance issue, while I do NOT and will not pay them for their chores, there have been times they got a regular allowance. However, they don't at the moment, but that's by their own choice. I told them if I paid them regularly (at last count they got $20 per month, that probably needs to go up now) then they would be responsible for buying all their own "extras" like the shaved ices we get in the summer all the time, the gum they want at the grocery store, drinks at the movies, etc, etc. Truth is that I give them more than what their allowance is in extras, so they both decided not to rock the boat and right now they have no allowance.

The only task I pay them for is to detail wash the car, because otherwise I'd have to pay strangers to do that!

The things I expect of them varies by need, but they do have some regular daily expectations: help fold and put away laundry, animal care~~they are 100% responsible for all the horses (6 of them), the goats (4) and the dogs (2), I have NOTHING to do with any of that twice per day. My dd empties the dishwasher (with me if I have time, alone if not), my ds takes care of the trash (which involves driving to the street, his favorite task!). Both kids can and will do laundry if I need them to, but I generally do it unless they are being lazy about putting stuff away or picking stuff up, then they are required to do it. My philosophy there is I go to the trouble of washing, you can speedily put it away or you can do it yourself, and I've followed through on that. Ditto with not picking up their own dirties, if they can't trouble themselves to put dirties in the hamper, then I don't wash! Both kids are expected to pick up their own rooms, do general house cleanup, clean up outdoor stuff as needed, etc. Basically if I'm working I expect them to help out, whether it's cooking or putting together some shelves, both kids generally pitch in mostly cooperatively.

Gosh then ended up long, sorry! Bottom line: I don't pay for chores and I expect them to help me when I need it, in addition to their basic daily chores and household cleanup.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 11-28-1999
Mon, 12-29-2008 - 11:44am

The reason I decided to give DS 13 an allowance ($10 a week) is so that he could start learning to manage his money and not always be asking me to buy him more things. Sometimes I will buy him something, but he would always be asking me to buy him more books or clothes that he doesn't need. (I would buy him new clothes every year anyway if he outgrew what he had the year before.) So now if we're in the store and he wants another book, I will say "did you bring your money?" and then he thinks if he really wants that book. Likewise, if he wants to go to the movies or buy ice cream, etc., then he has money. If he doesn't want to spend it, then he will have stuff saved up. I also made him buy Christmas presents for the family w/ his own money. I do know what you mean about kids deciding not to do chores if they didn't want money--that wouldn't be acceptable to me cause the chores still have to be done.

Since right now there's only the 2 of us home most of the time (DD is at college) I don't have much in the way of assigned chores, except asking to clean up after himself. He can do his own laundry. I used to put his short sleeved shirts on one side of the bureau and long sleeve on the other side--now he's decided he wants to color-coordinate his drawers--I'm not going to spend time doing that, so he can put his own clothes away. Last night we had Caesar salad w/ chick, so while I was cooking the chicken, he was putting the salad into the bowl. He will go grocery shopping w/ me and help put the food away. And he was very good at shoveling in the last storm. If he can manage to mow the lawn, I would probably pay him extra for that, cause I don't like mowing.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Mon, 12-29-2008 - 11:55am
I agree, and we do the same thing (my kids have a debit card), as far as managing their money and such, somehow even without regular allowance they both seem to have money in their account! At stores and such I do the same as you, they have to keep an eye on their account and use the debit card to buy things I am unwilling/unable to buy. I do need to start them on a regular allowance again so they have more money, but it won't be tied to chores.
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iVillage Member
Registered: 01-15-2007
Mon, 12-29-2008 - 3:01pm
We have a chart with a point system. The minimum amount a week is a dollar. They determine by how many chores they do if they get more then that. The most is 10 a week, which is 40 points earned. We decided by difficulty and the amount of time it took to do the chore what point it was worth. We don't make it easy but if they get busy they can earn that 40 points. Katie does it every week. My other two vary in points. They aren't eager to save their money for something like she is.


 

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-05-2006
Mon, 12-29-2008 - 7:17pm

We pay $10 per week. We did want DS to be able to save up for BIG things that we didn't want to buy, like video games ect. He does his

 

Kristy
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Mon, 12-29-2008 - 7:53pm

Welcome to the board!

My kids all have chores. My 10 year-old DS has to empty the dishwasher and put away the dishes before dinner, scoop the cat litter box, take care of his guinea pig completely, put away his laundry and take down the recycle bins and trash once/week.

My 7 year-old DS sets and clears the table every night.

My girls are 5, but I try and get them to pick up their toys and help me in little ways around the house all the time.

All my kids are responsible for cleaning up after themselves, although it doesn't always happen! And the boys are supposed to make their beds every morning.

We pay $10/week allowance to Matthew (age 10), and $5/week to Justin (age 7). The girls will start getting an allowance in first grade, next year ($2.50/week for the first year). The allowance is not completely dependent upon the chores. If they get punished for something and we yank their allowance one week, they have to do the chores anyway, but if they don't do them, they certainly don't get any allowance.

HTH!! :)




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iVillage Member
Registered: 09-01-2003
Tue, 12-30-2008 - 12:47am

Hi and welcome!

My siggie 2
iVillage Member
Registered: 12-28-2008
Tue, 12-30-2008 - 2:58pm
Thank you so much for all of your replies! I can definitly see that I've been WAY too easy on my dd & I'm looking forward to putting it all together & having some extra help!! Thanks again!

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