Getting paid for doing everyday tasks around the house has become the norm, but shouldn’t kids do these things as part of their daily responsibilities?
I’m old school. I’m stubborn, and I don’t follow trends when it comes to parenting. We don’t watch TV during the school week, we don’t sit on the computer and play mindless games and there are no hats, cell phones or bad manners at our dinner table. So when my friends started asking me how much allowance I give my elementary school-aged children I laughed ... out loud. Why in the world would I pay my children to do the things needed to sustain the house they live in? I did some research on the topic and, it turns out, much to my surprise that there are a host of “professionals” that believe children should be paid, for example, 50 cents per week for each year of age. In this scenario my 7-year-old would get $3.50 per week. Others have …
There is a lot to get done around the house and getting your kids involved from an early age will benefit everyone.
Let’s face it: Getting the household chores done is not on the top of anyone’s fun list. Even adults sometimes have trouble tackling the day to day tasks that keep a home running. So, why should we expect our kids to do them? Off the top of my head, I can think of several reasons. Kids love feeling proud of themselves. Ask a 3-year-old to help you sweep the kitchen floor with a fun kid-sized broom (my son also has a kid-sized dust pan and brush) and show him the clean floor afterwards and you will surly see a huge smile. I asked my 5-year-old to pull out the weeds that had grown in some cracks and she went to work like her life depended on it. When I told her to step back and look at how much nicer the patio looked from her hard work, she …
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Catch A Falling Star
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The Elephant's Trunk Bookshop
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KEN D...
3:16 pm on Tuesday, January 8, 2013
I never gave my children a regular allowance. I did, and still do give them plenty of money. It seems to me that if one chooses to give their children allowance, they should also feel entitled to charge for room and board. I will never forget the day one of my daughters found out about my HUGE paycheck. I sat her down and showed her the HUGE bills that were payed with that check. When we started… more ›