Do your children earn pocket money?

[nenevomito]

To get pocket money in our house the DCs have to do jobs.

DS 7yo has to tidy his room, put loads of washing on, split out the tumble dryer stuff and put that on and hang out the bits that can't tumble, He does that for 3 loads. For this he earns £5 a week - 3 from the washing and £2 for getting up when he's told from DH.

DD 3yo has to tidy her room and remember to put her cups by the sink once she's finished her drink. For this she gets £2 a week.

One of my friends was shocked when I said what the kids had to do to get pocket money as hers got about that for doing nothing. I just want to teach them from an early age that money needs to be earned and now they ask for a job to do if they need to save extra and the get the joy of buying it for themselves.

Does anyone else make their children work for pocket money?

Gosh that is a lot of money and a lot of jobs. Do they do them all without complaining or being reminded?

They ask for jobs to do so they can earn money. The more jobs they do, the more pocket money they earn. If they ask to do more, DD does things like putting her toys away and running the duster over the TV stand. If DS asks to do more, he tidys the front room or helps clean the car.

They've worked out that jobs = money = things they want. We win as they're helping keep the house tidy and they win as they don't have to ask us for stuff.

WRT the washing, if there's more than 3 loads or a lot to hang up, I help. I also do the sorting as he's not quite got the hang of that yet .

Some of it. I wouldn't pay them to do actual housework for me, just keeping rooms tidy and their beds made. They get £1 every week but get extra if they're particularly helpful without being asked or get all their spellings correct.

I'd rather pay a cleaner than a 7 yr old tbh. It sounds a lot of money for children to 'earn'.

Your arrangement sounds like earnings more than pocket money.

I couldn't afford to give dc that much money: my 16yo doesn't get that much even! But they do have to help out anyway, without asking for remuneration.

How would yours cope if you couldn't afford to give them money any more? Or if (when they are older) you suddenly need a lot more help from them? Would they still help?

I think it can be ok to have pocket money linked to chores, as long as it is clearly understood that helping somebody just for the sake of it is also expected of them and that mutual support is what families do.

Earlier in the year when DH was made redundant and I was too ill to work, we couldn't give them that much. We explained that we didn't have much money and DS still did jobs as he wanted to save up to buy things. DD at 3 didn't really get it, but she copied her brother.

I suppose it is earnings. We used to give £1 to the oldest and 50p a week to the youngest, but DS wanted a way to save up for skylanders and started to ask to do jobs to earn money. We've taken his lead.

If he doesn't do anything to help, he still gets his £1.

I give my ds1 £5.00 if he has to look after his sister whilst I work and before dh comes home. A maximum of 3 hours normally but it could be as little as an hour
He also has to do chores for free round the house . Not much but my dp and I work so to, me its all about pulling their weight around the house . I dont begrudge him the odd tenner now and again though if he asks
He has a paper round so he has weekly money

Ds2 has his sea cadets paid and any trips pertaining to that in return he does a few chores round the house again its about pulling together whilst the parents work and again I dont mind giving him the odd fiver here and there

My DCs set up an in-house cleaning "company". They have a laminated sheet of paper which they attach the jobs they've done to, and we pay them the "list" price for each job.
They are 11 and 9, they love doing their jobs, I've even had housework offers from the DCs friends on play dates.

I think it's sounds good as long as thy are happy with it.

Personally I think I will be going with x jobs are expected of you as a contributing member or the house and y jobs are available for you to earn money from.

Disclaimer, dd is too young to be experimented in with this yet

We have two types of chores - compulsory (no £ reward) and optional (£ rewarded). My DS7 has to make his bed and keep his room tidy, set the table and do anything else I ask (I am reasonable, of course) and this is the way in which he is expected to make a contribution to our family.

Apart from that, we have a chart full of age-appropriate chores which he can choose to do or choose to ignore. The list includes feeding the dog, cleaning the toilet, wiping down the dinner table, etc. Each chore has a reward £ value and every time he completes a chore, we put a mark next to it on the chart and at the end of the week, we add up the amounts and we make a deposit in his piggy bank. He's very keen on doing chores and earning money at the moment because he wants his own money for our holiday at the end of the year. He can earn up to £6 a week if he does everything on the chore list, but more typically, it's between £3 and £4.

InMySpareTime.
Love it

Mine get pocket money.
They also have jobs to do in the house, but the money is not linked to those jobs.

They do their jobs because we all live in the same house and everyone has to contribute.
I don't get paid for doing everyday things like doing the washing or clearing the kitchen after dinner, it's just something that has to be done.

But I am a wicked mother according to ds2 who tells me that all his friends either get paid extra for cleaning their room or they don't have to do it at all

They get pocket money because they are generally nice children and they want to go to the shop and buy sweets or in ds1 case buy ridiculously expensive trainers.

Although, ds1 and dd have a little car cleaning/gardening "business" in our street to earn extra money.

My children 'earn' their money. Well DS1 does (he's 6) DS2 (3) doesn't really understand money - he just likes to join in.

They are also 'fined' for not doing as they are told/being unpleasant to anyone particularly DS2 etc. The threat of a fine usually works very well.
DS1 is obsessed with money and counts it every day. He understands the concept completely and will tell us the toys that he wants. We then find them on the internet and how much they are and he decides what he's going to save up for.

He earns money for:
doing well at his extra homework (stuff we ask him to do on top of schoolwork)
doing a good tidyup (especially if its not necessarily his own mess)
doing jobs for DH in the garden
doing a clear wee (5p for a clear wee - was originally to encourage him to drink more water but has backfired spectularly as he's constantly going to the loo and asking us to come look at his wee LOL)
He will often ask for jobs to do in order to earn some money.

He is expected to do certain things without earning money:
taking his finished meal things to the sink
putting his laundry in the basket (if he doesn't he gets fine)
tidying away his toys in the evening after playing with them.
putting his shoes in the shoe box
helping set the table

He currently has £12 in his money pile (he has a money box but prefers it in a pile on the living room rug where he can count it!) This has been earned over the last 2 or 3 weeks. Some of it I'm not particularly happy about as he set up a 'fair' in the back garden the other day and charged DS2 50p a go for the bouncy castle (our trampoline) I had words about this with him!

I like the idea of having a list of chores that have a price against them. That means that DS and DD could choose how much and little to do (although bedrooms are non-negotiable!!)

I gave my children pocket money but they had to use it to buy what they wanted - I didn't buy them 'treats' as well so if they wanted sweets or magazines they had to buy them out of their own money.
Both of them were expected to clear up after themselves from a young age and were never paid to do it. However, I would pay them for tidying up the garden or helping to clean the car - jobs like that.