AIBU to ask if you would give a 7 year old weekly pocket money and if so how much?

[akdmummy]

My nearly 7 yo DD has recently wanted to have some of her own money to spend as she wants. For example at the school fair she preferred me to give her a bit of money and then went off and made her own mind up as to what she spent it on. She understood that once it was all gone that was it.

She's gone to her Grandma's for a few days and without me knowing has taken a few pounds from her piggy bank with her to spend.

WIBU to give pocket money at this age and if so what would a reasonable amount be? Do people attach rules to receiving the pocket money (ie in exchange for doing little jobs) or do they just give it whatever?

Dd age 8 gets £20 a month out of her child benefit. The rest goes on her swimming lessons and savings.

I do it that way as I see child benefit for the child.

If you have a DC5 then do they get. The same? Or do they wait until they are 7 too?

ArseyTussle Saving was never a problem because as a kid I liked to "collect money" (having a fun piggy bank certainly helped!). One thing I remember my dad doing when I was very young though, was to have this small separate box for when I wanted to buy sweets. If I bought my own sweets, I could eat it instantly, but £1 spent will only get me £1 worth of sweets. If I put the £1 in that box however, my dad would get me maybe £2 worth of sweets about 10 days later. It was a very simplified way of teaching me about investing I suppose.

I think 7 is a good age to start having pocket money for an 'average' child, as they begin to understand the 'value' of money, rather than just seeing coins in maths. The age old dilemmas of spend now vs save for something next week. Should I buy this here, or go and look in the other shop where it might be cheaper, etc.
I think young children need to feel the coins in their hand / pocket / purse to really "get" this. However, I think before around 7 yrs, they would struggle with the maths of how many weeks you need to save or how much change you get or if I spend this and save that, how long will it take to save for the other, etc.

So for you having a stash of cash was a good idea? I think DD is the 'money burning a hole in the pocket' type and would just see every penny as fair game for spending.

Sorry, that was for C3H8O.

10 year old gets £5 a week, tbf though he actually loves getting stuck in at home and seems to relish helping me out. While not vastly taxing chores he'll happily help me bring the washing in, vaccuum, wash the dishes, help water the garden (what 10 year old doesn't enjoy spraying lots of water around) & generally when asked he's very accommodating.

Now, if only he could be as accommodating when asked to turn his current game off, that's work in progress, hit & miss.

We do 50p a week for each year of their age. They buy all sweets, magazines and toys/crap.

We buy the odd treat however I feel if they want anything they have to save for it or wait for their birthday/Christmas. DS10 saves most of his for Lego/Xbox one games, DD8 buys make up and crap and DD6 buys the occasional magazine and is saving for a Furby.

Oh and sometimes that £5 is 'virtual money' as it can go on game updates etc

It all hinges on homework being done too!

With regard to the questions about saving. My children have started to see the benefit and been motivated. They wanted a massive trampoline for the garden which was £80. I said I'd pay the remainder if they saved up and paid £10 each. They achieved this and now play on the trampoline daily and are proud they contributed.

We now use this to keep their enthusiasm for saving. We talk about how much things cost and they love going to the bank and seeing the numbers go up in their savings, but to balance it out they also are allowed to spend some.

A lot is down to personality. My eldest is like me - spends instantly and if she has £2 to spend will spend all. My other daughter will often choose not to spend any at all but then is clever and eats her sisters sweets that she bought!!

For the chores - if they refused to do some that's fine from our perspective as I point out some things I will therefore not do for them and how they'll have to do it themselves. They soon do their chores afterall!! I don't make idle threats so I've had them buttering slices of bread and making their own fruit salad for dinner instead of eating what I've cooked if they've refused to tidy their room for instance. Or I set the timer and any toys left out when it beeps go in the charity bag. I guess we just have a different approach.

Tittygolightly I'd be interested in links to the research if you have them (I'm an avid reader of parenting subjects and if I need to revise our approach I'm happy to)

age 7, DS gets £1 a week from us and £1 a week from nannan. Chores are non-negotiable and are not reward based, we are a family and everyone needs to pull their weight.
We buy hobbybased stuff for him and magazines/books. H sells on old toys himself with my help when he is done with them.

ArseyTussle This sounds very silly now as an adult but when I was very young my piggy bank was a very adorable rabbit, so putting in coins was like me "feeding" the rabbit.

When I was a bit older my dad moved on to "library evenings" as I've mentioned a couple of posts back, and one of my very first "topics" was to make a plan on how much I should put in everyday for the school holidays where I wouldn't get any pocket money. He also slowly got me off the daily allowance into a weekly allowance so I'd learn how to manage my money, and as I got older it moved on to monthly, and then yearly allowance. By that time though, I've already sort of picked up the habit of not living allowance to allowance so I guess it worked out all fine.

8 year old gets £1 per week . If she wants more then she does something extra like washing the car. Doesn't get paid for taking part in basic family tasks such as clearing the table /tidying up etc. She loves saving up for something, younger son happy with a shiny coin doesn't matter what it's worth

5 years old, gets £5 but linked to what was a tick chart at the beginning to motivate cleaning teeth, getting dressed and undressed with arguing, putting dirty clothes on basket and tidying toys. Loses a £1 a day if doesn't do this. He is ahead in his understanding of numbers and money and so this has been great for him and he is excellent at saving it with the odd weeks money getting a charity shop you etc. He keeps trying to persuade me to get him a magazine as doesn't want to use all his money. He hasn't had a magazine since started the pocket money as he's too stingy

No link to chores for my 7&5 year old. 7 year old gets £1 a week as does my 5 year old. My youngest tends to forget about her pocket money - she only gets it because she sees her older brother get some too!

5 & 8 yr olds get £2.50 a week. 13yr old gets £10 per week and an extra £10 per month for phone contract

When DS1 was 6/7 we started giving him £2 a week. Originally we told him he had to do extra jobs round the house but in the end that just caused more hassle trying to find him jobs.
In the end we adopted a 'fine' system. So he'd get his £3 a week but if we went against any laid down rules would get fined 10p (leaving the tv on when he left the room, not making his bed, not feeding dog, not doing his teeth etc). This worked really well for us and ensured his chores always got done.

I don't give my 6 and 5 year olds any. I think maybe I should start. On a previous thread I saw an idea I liked that was three jars, one to spend, one to save and one to donate and the child gets the same amount for each jar weekly.
My 12 year old gets a tenner everytime he goes to town, around twice a month and £10 phone top up.
17 year old gets £135 a month plus wages but buys all her own stuff from that, lunches, bus fare, phone, clothes, toiletries except toothpaste, soap and shower gel etc

No chores linked with pocket money. They just have to help out.

My ds is 6 he gets £2 a week. He loves.saving and hates pending but we are encourging him to, if he wants something such as a fidget spinner.

He also gets extra for.doing some jobs. Eg i will.say to him tidy the sitting room and i'll give you a.£1. He even plumps the cushions.

Money burns a hole in DD's pocket too. But this is what pocket money is for. She has saved well twice. Once for a special doll and currently because I have told her she can have a mouse for her birthday but she has to pay for a mouse house. She desperately wants a mouse so $1 goes into the mouse jar every week.

She's learning.

7 year old £10 a week and another £5 from Grandma, thats more than most adults get, mindboggling, £60 a month! Hope they have to buy clothes out of that.I tried giving my 16 year old son allowance, he ended up spending it all at once then borrowing from younger brother.grandkids get pocket money small amount, they are 5 and 7, and tickled pink to get £1, or their money box.

My 8 year old gets 3 pounds a week, but I have also have started giving the younger ones the same. Mostly they blow it on sweets or games at the supermarket. Sometimes they will save it up for something.

Our DC have to do chores because they are part of the family.
They get pocket money for the same reason.
I give them half their age in money - eg; If they are 14, they receive £7.50 weekly.

However, although pocket money is not related to chores, if they fail to do their chores, I'll offer that chore to other DC and pay them to it out of lazy DC's pocket money.
EG DC1 refuses to take out the bins, which is their chore, by end of day. DC2 will do it, and come Saturday, I'll pay DC2 an extra say 50p. It will come out of DC1 pocket money.

Sorry haven't RTFT. If undecided, give less rather than more. It is very easy to increase the amount later, but you will look really mean if you decide you've set the amount too high and try to reduce it!