Do you reward your children with pocket money for their achievements? Share your thoughts - £200 to be won

[EllieSmumsnet]

Following NatWest Rooster Money’s latest Pocket Money Index we want to know: Have you ever thought about rewarding you kids for their achievements? Many parents believe that financial rewards can be a strong incentive for doing well at school or exams, good behaviour or completing homework. We’d love to hear your views on this approach. Do you reward your children with pocket money? Or do you have other methods for motivating them to excel in their studies? Share your thoughts and advice!

●Post your thoughts in the thread below to be entered into a Mumsnet prize draw
●One lucky MNer will win a £200 voucher for a store of their choice (from this list of VEX retailers).
●The closing date for entries will be 16th July 2024.

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I've heard of people rewarding exam results. £20 for an A, £15 first a B etc, but I don't agree with that. By doing this you are rewarding ability, not effort.

I told both of my children that I don't care what GCSE results they get (and they knew I truly meant it) but I DID care about how much effort they put in. I'd much rather reward a very hard earned 2 in maths than a 8 in maths where they barely put in any study or effort.

To really push the message of rewarding effort not results both children got a really big treat (new phone for one / a major hobby related gift for the other) the day they finished their exams, not the day of the results.

I reward mine for helping around the house, and if they get good test results or complete their reading book on time - I will give an extra couple of £1 coins - which they save in a cylinder - thank bank or change for a note to spend.
I will also with hold spending money for bad behaviour and cheekyness.

DC both get regular pocket money supplemented by bonuses for achievements. DS loves maths and gets certificates if he does a certain amount every week (not compulsory for school). When he gets 5 certificates he gets a bit extra. DD is less academic but has a hobby where she goes up levels and again, gets a bit extra every time she moves up a stage, and when she is awarded for extra effort in a school sometimes. As others though it’s more related to effort than grades.

Mine get pocket money each week but chores are just part of living in a community together and therefore everyone is expected to pull their weight in an age appropriate way. When they are older teens if they did additional skilled things that we’d have to pay for (like painting a fence or putting up a shelf) perhaps we would consider payment. I can’t imagine financial rewards for good behaviour or grades, we are trying to help them want to succeed but I’m not going to pay them to do so. I’m definitely not paying £2 a positive point or I would be handing out £20-40 a week!

That’s not to say we don’t celebrate achievement (or effort) but it’s not tied to their finances.

I reward some things, but think having responsibility for their own money and bank account is an important life skill going forward - money management and banking is not something taught at school (not ours anyway)

Definitely not for school work, exams, normal helping around the home.

But a great incentive for extra jobs, especially those you might out source anyway like weeding.

No, I reward for trying but not for actual achievement.

No, they got their pocket money anyway, but were expected to keep their rooms tidy and do their homework.

We didn't offer incentives for grades, or reward good grades - couldn't afford it. We celebrated with pizzas and a Colin cake.

I don't use money as a reward or incentive to bribe my children to do something eg. ' if you do this, you will get that', but will often give money or gifts after an achievement without warning eg. 'this is for the kindness/good work you did earlier this week'. This works for me at the moment, but is probably age related as the children are 10 and 6. I expect it will change as they get older.

I try to give my 2 DC's equal spending money, for good behaviour, helping me around the house, and going to bed nicely - it really helps with behaviour - you may see this as a bit of a bribe - but if it works ....

I have only recently been giving spending money- not reward based, but to give them responsibility for buying their own 'extras' such as cinema trips, nintendo games, and extra controllers. £10 a week, into a bank account with a debit card. They are so far responsible and hopefully this will help into early adulthood.

I can't afford a lot of spending money - I wish I could, but I do reward my DC's with a couple of £1's which they save, this is for helping me around the home with gardening, and my allotment - keeping the weeds at bay, and whenever a school report has been good.
They know I have a very tight budget, and are ok with it - but it's hard when their peers get £10 a week- I know it will get more difficult once they get older if I cannot afford to reward them. (hoping for lower mortgage rated and a payrise)

I thinks being able to manage your own money and learn about a bank account is just a real life lesson for your children - so when they got to secondary school would put spending money into a rooster bank account (or similar)

I don't award for achievement but I do give a treat for effort made so they know that I am very proud. This might be a day out/meal out or something small that they would like. I prefer my kids to learn that the more effort they put into things the better for them in life rather than link this to a short term financial reward.

I do reward financially, for good effort and good behavour, this can be spontaneous, we have a little wall chart to record this. I think it's part of life we work for reward, we save money for things we want, pocket money is the start of being financially aware, and have awareness of saving, and using on-line method for your money.

mine are now teens but we have never correlated chores with financial reward as our view has always been that we are a family and should all contribute to the running of the house (age appropriately) We all benefit from living here and all make the mess so should all help keep it clean and tidy.

Since they were little they have been expected to help tidy up toys, then as they got older other chores have been added in like keeping rooms tidy, laying the table, doing the dishwasher, recycling and bins, helping to cook etc.

They get monthly pocket money but it is not connected to anything. If they for example offered to weed the jungle of a garden or clean the car then we would give them something extra as those are not expected chores.

We also do not give incentives for tests or exams although MIL will often give them some money for good results/effort. We do always make sure we praise effort over attainment.

Was paid for chores, so zero free pocket money and was rewarded for exam results.

Seriously have NatWest agreed to a post about this?!

everyone knows you shouldn’t ‘reward’ children for basic chores or school work. It’s all about effort. How bizarre of NatWest! Don’t understand children for sure

I'm really uncomfortable with this. You should want to do well in exams because you want to learn and do well, you should want to help out at home because a family is a community. Bribing kids to study leads to men who won't empty the dishwasher unless there's something in it for them.

I don't reward for achievements as I have 2 children with very different abilities - I think it's more important to help them manage money, and learn about on-line banking. Rewarding kindness and good behaviour with stickers and words can be more effective as it's instant and visible for them.

Really interesting to see how families approach pocket money in different ways! My husband & I had a discussion about how we wanted this to work in our family.. what we agreed on was a basic pocket money amount each week & then the opportunity to earn extra by doing jobs around the house. We didn't really start to look at pocket money before the age of 8.
We reward effort, rather than achievement. Our son enjoys saving (unlike me!) which is great, & he likes to check his balance & asks to do extra jobs if he is saving up for something in particular.

My DC have pocket money but do not earn 'extra' for being helpful and trying hard. I expect that as a minimum! Family should help out and they often pitch in to help around the house. I equally buy them things outside of their pocket money, because they're kind and it's nice to be nice. All in all, I would appreciate a bank account for them as this would be helpful for them learning about money, but I would rather something that could be managed without a device- neither is old enough (in my view) for a phone. At the moment, we trade in cash only!

The closing date for this was 16th July. @EllieSmumsnet should the thread be staying open? Has the winner been contacted? Thank you.

My children are still early/mid primary school but I am trying to get them to help around the house more and more as they age. They get £2 per week for keeping their room tidy and £1 per chore they complete (never gets beyond £3 at the moment).