DS earning his way towards a camp trip

[survivingthechildren]

DS3 is 11 and wants to go away on a scouts trip over the xmas holidays. He absolutely loves Scouts, and this will be their first "grown up" camping trip. They are going away to a national park and camping out in tents for 2 nights, and then 3 nights in a lodge. They will be doing all kinds of adventurous activities and DS will have a blast.

We are perfectly happy to let him go, but the trip is fairly expensive at $120. I want to teach my children the value of money, and that to get something in life you need to work hard to earn it. The DC are exposed to a lot of materialism, and I don't want spoilt children basically!

So DH and I have said we will match him dollar for dollar for the trip, i.e. he will need to earn $60 between now and the trip in early December. There are plenty of ways he can do this, i.e. paper round, extra chores, doing odd jobs for the neighbours, etc.

However, my DM has got wind of this and is horrified. She's great really, but is a bit of a worrier when it comes to the DC and basically things taking a paper route/mowing the neighbour's lawn will be too much for his. She wants to gift him the money, and says I'm "expecting too much".

What do you all think? Is 11 too young for such things? In the event that he tried really hard and just wasn't able to cover the cost we set, we would of course be happy to step in and pay the rest as it is the lesson in hard work I want to instil, versus the money itself!

[chocoluvva]

Would your DM be agreeable to paying him for household chores he does for her perhaps? She wouldn't ask him to do anything too onerous, but he'd still be earning the money.

[valiumredhead]

My ds did something very similar recently. Perfectly reasonable.

[ThreeBeeOneGee]

I think that $60 is an achievable amount for him to earn over the next few months. We often use "fund matching" to get our children to contribute towards things they want but don't need. DS1 (13) has been earning money towards an optional school trip next Easter.

[survivingthechildren]

Thanks for the feedback, we figure as this is an "extra" it serves as a good opportunity to teach him the value of money and hard work!

DS is fully on board, and spent Sunday making up flyer to pass up and down our street! May have to keep an eye on that, as he's already had a request to help out with some gardening - my daffodils fell victim to his not so green thumbs last year, so we may need a crash course in horticulture!

[usualsuspect]

I would just pay for him.

He's only 11.

[titchy]

Actually I think he's too young to be paying for his own holidays sorry.

I would say you'd start at about 14 if you wanted to at all. At 11 he's only going to earn pennies helping the occasional neighbour do a bit of weeding. Unless you live in a street where everyone will give him odd jobs to do I think posting flyers could be quite disheartening for him - I certainly would be paying some random kid to do my weeding! And at 11 he will NOT be able to get a paper round (minimum age round here is 14, adn there's a long waiting list).

Our scouts go away several times a year and we pay for ds to go each time as it is brilliant for his self-confidence, but to ask him to earn half the cost each time would probably destroy any self-confidence he had!

If you want to teach him the value of money, give him a regular amount of pocket money each week, and tell him he need to use that to buy games/clothes/cinema trips/whatever.

[titchy]

Sorry I wouldn't be paying some random kid to do my weeding!

Both mine will have the opportunity to go abroad with Scouts, and both would be expected to fund-raise, but this is done as a group, with the support of the troop, and fund-raising is done in an official capacity (both Scouts and Guides have clear guidelines on fundraising for their trips you might want to be aware of if he mentions it's for a Scout camp), with district approval and in uniform (he shouldn't wear uniform to do any fund raising btw as the activity won;t have been approved).

[AChickenCalledKorma]

Personally I don't really regard Scout camp as an "extra" so much as essential character-building stuff which is a good counter-balance to all the indoor/screen based time that kids gravitate towards. Going to camp is very much part of the package as far as Scouts are concerned. So we budget for trips like this alongside other "educational" expenses like sports, music etc.

Having said which, if DD (my Scout) wanted some pointless bit of electronic gadgetry, I would be seeking match funding all the way. So if your DS is on board and happy with the idea, carry on.