Allowances for children

I get regular e-mails from The Simple Dollar, as he adds daily updates to his blog.  Most of the time, his content is either interesting or helpful in one way or another.  However, this morning, it was ridiculous.....as he's contemplating allowances for his children, the oldest being 3 years old.  The title is When Is A Child Ready For An Allowance?  He has 2 small children.  His take is that he might start giving his children weekly allowances equal to their ages.  SO, his 3-yr-old may be getting $3.00/week?!?!?!??!  I had to make a comment.  This is what I wrote (minus the photos!)

Trent,

I grew up in a family of 8 kids. I now have 6 children of my own - ages 2 to 12. The whole idea of getting money each week, just for being part of the family and doing no work whatsoever is training the child for welfare! Especially at age 3. Absolutely ridiculous. As a child, I knew my parents would care for my basic needs ....and even some of my wants. I never felt deprived. But if I wanted something extra-special, I had the ability to make my own money by WORKING for it. One summer I went door-to-door selling stuff out of a catalog, so that I could earn money to buy "something big" I wanted. We often took care of the neighbor's pets in exchange for money - while the neighbors were on vacations! As a result of getting money for WORK, every one of my siblings and myself are hard-working, entrepreneurial, contributing citizens who don't expect the gov't to care for us/feed us/provide us shelter/etc.  

So the next obvious question is HOW does a child earn money. Well, regular chores like cleaning up one's room, taking out the trash and rinsing supper dishes, and cleaning one's room and vacuuming one room each day are typical chores that contribute to the family...and each person is naturally expected to help with these. (everyone has a chore list to complete) It was never a big deal to any of us growing up, and my kids now don't have a problem with it.  

Same way I don't have a problem making dinner for my family!!! It is part of LIFE. Extra-big chores, like mopping all the hard floors in the house, earn special rewards, such as monetary payment or other treats (ice cream, whatever). You can see that we were not spoiled, nor are my kids now....but neither are they deprived!  

My children make money every week by doing real-world things. My 2 oldest each have egg-laying chickens. They sell the eggs to neighbors, natural-food stores, and to folks that stop in when they see our sign out front ("farm-fresh eggs").  

The next 3 children make cookies, bread, etc. and sell it. Their uncle takes a basket of fresh-baked foods to his corporate workplace, where all the other employees buy up all the goodies.  

My oldest daughter also makes cloth dolls which she sells online!  

In all of these cases, money is set aside for supplies (chicken feed, recipe ingredients, fabric, doll clothes, etc.)....and then the "profits" are what the kids get to keep! THAT is how you teach kids about money. I do make them save a portion of everything they make. Therefore, each of my children has a sizable savings account already. I'm sure somone is going to argue that my kids are overworked, etc. However, anyone around would testify that ours are the happiest kids in the neighborhood, and OUR HOUSE is the place where all the other kids like to hang out. In fact, on Saturdays, when we mop the hard floors, it is not uncommon to have 2-3 of the neighbor kids ask to help out, so they can earn the ice cream afterwards too! And we let them! :)