My 16 year old has just told me...

[itwasadarkandstormy]

... that all his friends are given £200 a week by their parents as spending money. I'm calling bullshit.

Actually, I feel like I've had the stuffing knocked out of me. I thought I was generous at about £80 a week.

So, AIBU?

My 17 year old gets £30 a month. And when he finally gets off his arse and gets a part time job then that will stop.
£80 a week!!!!!! Wow!!

He's trying it on! Wish I had £200 a week 😝

My my kids 18, 16 And 15 get £20 each which goes towards food and travel money. I pay for their phone contracts.

HAHAHAHHAHAHHA omg I needed a good laugh.. DS age 15.5 gets £20 for his lunch meals and a bit of spending thats it.

Jesus Wept. This is a thing? This happens? This is not a wind-up?

I'm alarmed, seriously. I do not have ANY spare cash to give even £5 a week, let alone £80 or £200.

This is not a wind-up?

No, it is a wind-up.

My kids have never had an allowance.

They had paper rounds and Saturday jobs.

@DiegoMadonna Thank you! Was getting a bit concerned there. I don't know any rich people at all, so I wasn't sure.

I wonder if he's had a conversation with friends about how much they get and hasn't realised his friends are given money monthly, rather than weekly. £200 a week is nonsense. £80 a week crazy-generous IMO.

He needs to get a job

At 16 I got the equivalent of (according to Google) 300 pounds/month but was expected to basically manage my own living expenses, including my mobile bill, train fares to and from school, text books, clothing, any hobbies, going out, school trips, food eaten outside the home, hairdresser, etc.

*equivalent in today's money, that is, i.e. adjusted for inflation.

"He needs to get a job"

Well if mommy is giving him £80 PW. He has no over heads. Whats the point in him going out to earn an honest living or even trying to

WUB

Wow! Dd who is fifteen gets a fiver a week if she's lucky!

I hope he is going to be able to get a job that will keep him in the manner to which he has become accustomed - or are you going to sub him all his life?

£80 is ridiculous. Per month would be more reasonable.

My two get £40 a month. Out of that they have to buy all their non-school clothes and shoes, any presents/cards for friends and family and anything else they want - if big, they have to save.

I will sometimes pay them if we are doing massive jobs aound the house - hack and slash gardening, room clearing involving heavy lifting, DIY or decorating. But I expect serious hard work out of them and I get it. £200 a week, he's having a larf.

DD is 15y and in Y11. She gets an allowance of £50 a month which is towards the top end of the amount the other girls she knows.

I pay for my 16 yr old weekly bus pass to college and £3 /day lunch. She gets £15 pocket money if she keeps her room tidy, so often the £15 is reduced! She works at the weekend to earn more. I think £80 is a lot at 16 and £200 is ridiculous as child not learning value of money.

OP - get your son on here to explain what he spends his £80 pw on and why he thinks £200 pw is worth it aged 16?

Have you sat him down with a budget? do you know how to budget? If he goes to uni will he know how to budget, cook, clean.

You're bringing up a cocklodger. I'm sure he'll earn loads of dosh after uni and have a flat paid for by yourselves and marry a girl as rich as him, but the attitude he'll develop won't be great. And he may even decide that poor people deserve poverty because they don't work hard. And never see the irony that you've provided him with everything.

4K a year in pocket money? That's nice.

My 16 year old gets 80 quid a month.
And that's for all his travel, food at college and gym.

The OP won't be back.

Too busy wearing their fingers to the bone to enable the son to have the lifestyle to which they have made him accustomed. probably

OP has long gone.....

I think the amount would depend on what they were required to buy for themselves. £200 per week to fritter or spend on alcohol is ridiculous. £40 if they're paying train fares, phone top ups, clothes, presents, toiletries etc might not be so ridiculous.