Too young for pocket money??

[popgoesperfection]

What are your thoughts on pocket money? What age? And how much?
Ds is nearly 7, and always sees things he wants on tv adverts. Last night he saw a toy he wanted so I said to him well maybe you can have it for birthday/Christmas and when your a bit older you'll be able to help with 'jobs' in the house and get pocket money. To which he asked what's pocket money. I explained that he'll have a 'job' to do each day and at the end of every week he'll get pocket money. Que him saying right what job can I do then, and I can save my pocket money up to buy my own toys. Me and his dad decided that he can make his bed and open his curtains every morning and on a Friday we'll give him £5. But now I'm thinking is he too young? He's quite mature for his age and in the bigger picture I feel it will teach him the value of money and that he has to help in the house hold, not everything is done for him.

[Aroundtheworldin80moves]

Not necessarily too young...

But I think £5 is a lot. My 8&10year olds get £2 as long as their bedrooms are reasonably tidy.

[GreenTortoise]

£5 for opening the curtains and making his bed?!

That's a bit much for just doing that.

[Akire]

7 is not to young good for them learn about cash and how much £5 actually buys you.
I would expect mim to make bed and open curtains at 7 that’s just basic waking up in the morning. Should have element of effort for reward. How about hoovering downstairs, or sweeping floors. Helping unload dishwasher few times a week.

[Chelyanne]

I started giving the eldest pocket money around 13 when we got her a current account (£15 pm via SO), she mostly buys tat or food treats with it. I encourage her to save up but she's not interested.
They all get money put in their savings monthly but will not be able to access those accounts until 16 & 18.

When thinking of amounts we have to think of affordability. We have 6 kids now, all seem to have money burn a hole in their pocket and want to blow it as soon as they get it. They get occasional treats but told to add toys etc on their wish lists for birthdays/Xmas, they have too much stuff as it is.

[FuckingFlumps]

He should have been making his bed and opening his curtains by himself way before now as part of his morning routine and he certainly shouldn't be getting £5 for the privilege.

He's not too young for pocket money but the amount doesn't need to be that high and the jobs he does to earn it should be things like loading the dishwasher or setting the table. You're expectations are way too low.

[bluebunnyblue]

We do pocket money for our 4&6 year olds and have done for about a year. They each get £12 a month with no requirement to do any specific chores. I won't buy them any toys or magazines (outside of birthdays/Christmas), that's what the pocket money is for. The amount works for us as it's enough that they can but stuff they want but not so much that they don't have to save for things. Eg if they are buying a magazine a month it then takes them two months to save up for an LOL.

[PeonyTime]

I dont think it's too young, but I do think its generous - although it depends on what you will be expecting him to buy with it, I guess.

FWIW, we have totally separated chores and pocket money. Chores are expected as generally part of living with others and basic living standards. Pocket money is just that.

[Yellow85]

It depends on whether your still going to spend on them out with the pocket money. If so I guess it won’t hold as much value. I attribute rewards to my DS’ school achievements rather than housework as at 7 he’d be rubbish at making the bed 🤣 so if he gets full marks in his spelling test each week he gets £1.

[TreadSoftlyOnMyDreams]

If you add on some actual chores his pocket money is going to ratchet up very quickly
It's not too young but it's too much even recognising how little you can buy for a £5 these days.

A friend had his kids every weekend when he got divorced. His kids got their pocket money on a Monday morning after he'd checked they'd left their bedrooms neat and tidy, dirty clothes in the basket and the playroom clear. They cleared the table and did their homework otherwise. Not exactly taxing but it set an expectation and a behaviour of a routine task don't well once rather than endless nagging over mess when passing the bedroom.

[CloseYourEyesAndSee]

£5 per week for a 7 year old is insane
Mine got £1 per week starting at age 8 which he used to buy a pack of match attax. It went up by £1 a year on his birthday and he's now on £6 at 13. It will stop when he's 18! I also pay for phone credit, clothes and shoes.

[CloseYourEyesAndSee]

And I also pay for activities with friends and some snacks when he's out and about.

[LindaEllen]

Christ, I'll come and make his bed if you give me £5 for it. Work out how long it takes him - he'll be on a better hourly rate than most adults!

I personally don't think children should be paid for keeping their own space tidy. If you give them an allowance that's fine, but I think learning that they get paid for doing their bit in their own home gives the wrong message.

[johnd2]

Mine isn't old enough yet but we are planning, as was the case for me, to give pocket money unconditionally and chores are expected as a full member of the family. Otherwise i would worry about teaching them to do family chores for money rather than for the feeling of being a full member of the family like everyone else.
I do agree it's important to know about earning money though, and when i was old enough i was washing the neighbours'cars, doing their gardens next door, paper round and cleaning jobs until i was 18, for which i got paid. So it's possible either way.
But money for chores is a bit like sticker charts, a bit of a distraction from the real reason people should be doing chores.
Even for adults, conditional money is bizarrely a killer of motivation for everything except the thing being paid for. For which it is highly motivating.

[discombobulatedonion]

My son is 3 and gets £10 a month to spend on whatever he wants, but if he wants something that’s more than £10, he has to save for it or choose something cheaper. He doesn’t have to do chores for it, because he’s 3, and even when he’s older he won’t have to do chores to get pocket money.

[Aroundtheworldin80moves]

I don't pay my children to do chores.
They can chose to pay me to do it for them...

Same result overall, but they are learning about the economy...

[popgoesperfection]

For you who's children made there beds at 6/7 year old, what other things did you expect them to do? I have plenty of mummy friends and colleagues who's children are older than that and aren't expected to make there beds!
Reading through these, maybe we'll reduce the amount a little.
No maybe pocket money shouldn't be earned for helping out in the house, but it will give him an incentive to do chores. I've always done all the things in the house like making the beds, opening curtains, loading/unloading the washer etc like my mum did when I was young.

[PeonyTime]

Mine are a bit older now, but:
Dirty clothes in washing basket
Toys away
Help sorting clean washing, and pairing socks
Stripping beds (aged 8 to start putting on clean sheets)
Clear away own plates after meals (8+ loading/unloading dishwasher)
Aged 9 and 11, when I went back to work, they dust, Hoover, peg out washing.

Not all the time, and usually done together, but they can do it all.

[QforCucumber]

Ds is almost 6 and gets £4 a week, that's the price of a magazine so didn't think that was too much?

He can choose when he gets it to save it or buy a magazine, some he has saved and he bought a £25 lego set, sometimes he chooses a magazine, sometimes a cake from the bakery and saves the rest.

He had become very want want want so we are trying to show him the value of the money and how he can't just have the things he wants immediately. Instant gratification is such an issue with kids atm I think, especially with the likes of Netflix and them getting what they want to watch immediately.

[jendifer]

We do pocket money (not for jobs) but with the expectation they will save, spend and give. So some gets saved for a toy or book, some gets spent (sweets, nicer pens than I would buy) and some gets given away. Currently it goes to a local homes less charity following conversations about why people slept rough.

[PlanDeRaccordement]

We started pocket money when they started full time school, so 7 is definitely not too young. We did €4 x the year they were in as weekly pocket money. The youngest is 17 now, so probably would do €5 x the school year per week because of inflation.

We did not link it to chores. They had chores, but these were unpaid and expected as their contribution to the family, which more closely resembles adult life as all housework is unpaid work.

The purpose of pocket money is to teach them financial literacy. How to save. What is interest. Until they were minimum age for own bank account, we kept a spreadsheet and paid in cash. Once they were old enough for bank account, we opened them, got them debit cards and started teaching about online shopping and safety.

[LazySundayPlease]

My almost 7 and 8 year olds also get £5 a week but they have to do a bit more than that! The list is:

• learn weekly spellings with no fuss (usually means practicing 3 nights)
• do weekly homework with no fuss
• put washing in the laundry basket when they take their clothes off every day
• bring cups and snack bowls to the dishwasher every day
• an act of kindness every week
• tidy room once a week
• tidy their things downstairs once a week

Each thing on the list has an amount of money attached and we tick them off on their gohenry accounts. So far they've always done them all!

[Sauvignonblanket]

My 7yo gets an extra 50p for chores like pairing socks, sorting laundry and other small jobs around the house (but not clearing up after herself which she should do anyway). She's supposed to save a quarter of it.

[cliffdonville]

My DD is 6 and she gets £5 a week on her Go Henry card,l. She sometimes buys a magazine but usually saves it to buy toys.

I don't link chores with her pocket money.
She keeps her room tidy and helps with with cleaning up after dinner and keeping the living room tidy, and will help with other chores when asked, but I see that as part of day to day life and not something I should pay for.

[Snozwanger]

Following this with interest as we recently gave my 7 year old son a couple more chores but I've not been able to decide an amount of pocket money. Before the pandemic we'd been giving him £2.50 a week (with no conditions) but it seemed to keep building up until he had loads so it felt like too much.

His current chores list is:

Empty dishwasher (those items where he can reach relevant cupboards)
Make bed, hang up pyjamas and leave room tidy
Clear his breakfast dishes from the table
Lay table for dinner
Put toys away at the end of the day

At the moment he's just getting a couple of chocolates on a Sunday as that's what his 3 year old sister is getting for her toileting efforts.

[InDubiousBattle]

My 6&7 year olds get £4 each a week and they don't have to do any specific chores for it. They make their beds, open their curtains, get their breakfast dishes out, out washing in the washing basket, sort out their water bottles for bed and school,feed the fish...help out generally but not for cash. I think with regard to the amount we chose £4 because it's enough to make a saving up goal of, say a little Lego set achievable for a still quite young child.