Chores and Allowances

This week I posted a poll on allowances. I thought I might explain how I feel about allowances and chores. so here it goes. I feel it's important for kids to help out around the house. They are part of the family and they make and can clean up the messes they make. I have them do things everyday to help around the house. On a daily basis they make their beds and pick up their rooms putting away toys, clothes and books. They bring dirty laundry and empty hangers downstairs for me to take care of. During dinner they are expected to help set the table and then help with the clean up afterward, i.e. taking their dishes to the sink, rinsing them, wiping off the table, sweeping the floor, etc. These things are expected of the kids. They don't get an allowance for these things.

Now with that said I also think it's important that children learn how to save and spend money responsibly. So we will give an allowance for specific jobs. The Chore Chart we now have on our kitchen wall are jobs they can do to earn money. Usually a quarter a job with no more than $2.00 earned during a week. These jobs include cleaning the bathroom, vaccuming the living room, vaccuming the steps, sorting and starting a load of laundry, sweeping and mopping the kitchen, helping to fold clothes, cleaning the storm door or sliding glass door and cleaning the bathroom. I feel like these are things they should learn to do and can help me and earn money at the same time. They can also earn treats for helping out spontaneously at other times. Right now we have a chore time when we do our chores together. Later after they have learned how to do the jobs I will assign specific jobs to be carried out during the week. If they do them they get paid if they don't they won't. I probably won't start that for a while though.

So that's how I feel about chores and allowances. Oh, and when they tell me they are bored they get a job helping out around the house. I'm not trying to punish the kids just showing them there are plenty of things to do.