AIBU about pocket money

[brookewestbabes]

my DD has recently turned 6 and i felt this was a good time to start giving her pocket money. me and DP don't have a lot of money so we felt £1 a week was reasonable. however shes come home from school to tell me that after telling her friends about how much pocket money she gets theyve started calling her mean names, telling her shes poor because they get more. she said one gets a fiver a week which is ridiculous for a 6 yr old! after talking to the girls mums about the name calling, one of them told me £1 was unfair and i got so angry i called her a nasty bitch to her face which i admit was a bit much. what does everyone think?

Wow a lot of messages! Thanks for the support from those who agree why I called her a nasty bitch! I dont think my daughter actually heard me say it though, tbh she probably hears worse on the tv!

Mine are 8 and nearly 5. We have plenty of money. They get £1 a week. In my view the main point of pocket money when young is to teach them the pros and cons between spending and saving. They have learnt that if they keep buying the little bits of plastic tat for £1 or £2 then they will never save up enough to buy the really lovely paw patrol car for £8.

No one has said anything positive or negative to them about it as far as I know.

If she hears worse than that on TV you need to think harder about what you let her watch.

Your 6 year old hears worse than nasty bitch on TV? What on earth do you let her watch? I'm astounded that you think you have support on the thread for calling the other mum a bitch. You really haven't. Talk about blinkered!

You stood up for yourself. Bit ott but it's done. £1 is enough. It's what my 6 and 8 year old get. Plus i put £10 each, every month into their isa accounts.

£5 per week!? When the youngest starts getting money that would cost £60 a month!! That would be spent on Sylvanian families and Avengers!!

£1 a week is fine. Equally, £5 a week is fine. So long as whatever you're giving your children isn't causing them to behave in a spoilt manner, then it's fine.

It's also individual choice. None of you habe to justify why you give the amount you do.

The other children shouldn't have been mean but, equally, you shouldn't have called her a nasty bitch. Being a 'proud mummy' has nothing to do with anything - we're all proud parents.

I think it depends. When we started giving pocket money, we pretty much stopped buying comics and sweets etc ourselves so the pocket money was a bit more, to cover those types of things. If you're still buying sweets and crisps etc, then of course a smaller amount is understandable. Whatever you can afford is fine, they're happy to just have something. The children at school are being mean and unkind.

Responding to name calling with name calling, though?

My eldest earns money by helping at home, she has a Go Henry card.

My 14 year old gets £5a week+phone contract.She had 50p for sweets when she was 6,,she bought lots of small things and had to be able to add the up herself to get them.Now she early eats sweets and mostly saves her money though is just starting to use it for socialising.
She is expected to keep her room and the bathroom clean and hoover/help with housework/cooking if I ask her.
So OP I think £1 a week is fine.Do apologise to the other mum for the language you used but not the sentiment behind it.

Hears worse on Tv?! Phew, that's ok then!
The issue other posters had with 'proud mummy' is that you even need to say it, as if you consider yourself more proud of your child than anyone else is about theirs. We're alll proud of our children. It reminds me of people who declare on Facebook how much they love their children, as if we were all unsure that they did.

£1 a week is fine and I'd speak to the teacher about name-calling at school but the person who looks really bad in this situation is you.

My daughter is 5 & gets £4 plus she can earn 5p per pair of sock she matches, 40p for emptying the dishwasher & 10p for sorting the washing colours. She used to get a magazine every week & this gives her enough to get a magazine if she wants but she doesn't get anything else.

We are trying to encourage her to save for bigger things & not waste money on magazines.

At that age mine started on 50p a week!
I think it also depends what pocket money is meant to cover.

For ours, when little, it was not about how much money they had but to introduce them to the concept of money, saving, value, etc. It was to spend on some sweets or crisps or save up for a magazine.

And, as someone else said, you can apologise for the language you used but not the meaning behind it.