Kids, Chores, and Money

Another blogger was asking for suggestions on chores that kids can do, and also about allowances and spending money. Rather than waste all that blabbing over there in the comments section, I shall share my vast knowledge with all of you. :)

Chores:

For at least 5 years now we have used what I call "Areas" as guidelines for chores for the kids. Basically, I have split the house up into zones or areas that kids can clean. Right now I have 3 kids who have their own areas to clean, but in the past I have had only 2.

Areas at our house:

Pick up and put away all the stuff from the kitchen, living room, and hallway floors, and vacuum then as needed.

Pick up and put away all stuff on the stairs, landing, laundry room, and downstairs hall, plus vacuum as needed.

Family room: pick up and put away stuff from floor, general straightening of room, plus vacuum as needed.

I have kids ages 12, 9, and 7 that each have one of these areas assigned to them. The oldest child also handles most garbage detail and helps with yard work, as does the 7 year old. The 9 year old helps with childcare assistance when needed.

The 7 year old started having an area when he was 4. I gave him the area that I could best and most directly observe, to make sure he didn't get distracted, and also to teach him to do it decently.

We usually do "area pickups" every morning before we go on to doing fun stuff, so the house isn't embarrassing if someone stops by, plus it's just nicer to live in. A lot of days I have them wait and do the vacuuming at the end of the day, though, if I anticipate an especially crumbly meal or a lot of sand tracked through the house or whatever.

After they pick up their areas, they also spend approximately 15 minutes picking up their rooms. 15 minutes is plenty if you keep up on it, and usually affords them time to periodically do some extra cleaning type stuff like fishing out stuff from under their beds or decluttering a surface or shelf.

Most days all the kids cleaning is done within 30-40 minutes, so it's not a big deal.

We sometimes have extra work days when things have gotten particularly messy or if we have something special coming up that we want to be prepared for.

Money:

We don't give allowances. Nobody gets paid for the basic stuff that needs to get done around the house. Nobody pays me to do the laundry or make the meals or clean the kitchen, so why should the kids get paid for contributing to the overall maintenance of the house? I sorely detest a child who thinks they deserve money for every little thing they do.

What we *do* practice, is offering extra jobs that *are* for pay. At this point I pay the kids $1 per 15 minutes of work, and as they get faster and better, I will increase the amount. (slow workers get less) (It was a lower amount when they were littler) I think $4 and hour for a little kid is pretty darn good money. So, very often they will come up to me and ask "Is there any extra job I can do for money?" They always have to have their regular stuff done first. Some of the extra jobs we pay for are:

washing walls
cleaning vehicles inside or out
extra yard work
organizing
picking up in rooms that are especially trashed or have an extra need
washing windows

So, an enterprising child can easily earn $30 a month if they only work 15 minutes a day. When they bemoan wanting money to spend at Dollar General or whatever, we encourage them to work and save for the thing they want, and we break it down into "If you only worked for one hour you could have the money for that" so that they see the connection between working and earning to have things they want.

Having them have to work extra for money has also revealed which kids are hardworking and which are lazy. One of our children is particularly averse to doing any extra work, so he has a lot of disappointments while walking past the toy aisle at the store. :) But, by being able to see so clearly that he is being lazy, it helps us to be able to say NO WAY to getting him the extra little stuff that he wants. It would only encourage the laziness even more. Now, when my hard working and industrious child wants something but doesn't have the money right then, sometimes I will strike up a deal to get the work done in order to pay off the purchase, and that works well too. That kid is encouraged because she is being rewarded according to the character she has already demonstrated, and it encourages her to keep going in the right direction. This is a good example of separate but equal parenting! The goal for both children is the same, but the mode needed to get them there is different.

Our oldest son handles much of the money that goes toward his expenditures now, thanks to a plan that we adapted after hearing about it from a friend. (thanks Jill!) We figured out how much money he would need in a year for
clothes
buying gifts
going to camp
giving to charity
spending money
school activities/sports
and then divided it by 12. He gets that amount of money each month and is responsible for saving it for the longer term things, and using it for the shorter term things. I think we started this with him when he was 11 and now it has been about a year and a half. Overall it is working well. He does manage to spend his money on things that aren't budgeted in (like PS2 games) but he has also found creative ways to cut costs on other things. He has chosen not to do some things that he probably would have done if we were just going to pay for it. He considers more carefully what to buy and where to buy it based on seeing what he's got and knowing how far it has to go. Obviously he has made some choices that aren't that great, but we want him to make those poor choices now and learn from them, rather than later when the stakes are so much higher.

We have occasionally decided to pay for stuff that came up at school or whatever that we did not anticipate and had not budgeted in, and we help him out by pointing out when he could benefit from a good bargain on some clothes of whatever he might be needing.

We're still a work in progress, of course, since our oldest isn't yet 13. But, this is working well so far.

I did learn of a neat site called Chore Buster that can help families organize their chores. For me, I like just keeping it simple and having the kids stick with the same areas for a pretty long time. They learn how to do the area very well, and I don't have to constantly wonder "Who was supposed to clean this area?" We generally switch areas 4 times a year, when I see a need for a change.