Should Children Get an Allowance?

How can you decide if you child is ready to receive the grand privilege of getting an allowance? You would want to make sure that your child comprehends exactly what an allowance is, and make sure they understand what has to be done to earn their allowance. The very first thing that you will want to do is decide how much will be given and for what. For example if they make sure that their room is clean and the bed is made for the week. Or possibly every two weeks. You will need to decide when the allowance will be received as well. What a child receives for an allowance varies from family to family but how do you decide what is reasonable for your child? There are several factors that you need to take into consideration. Like the age of your child, and the mauity level. Of course you will probably want to wait until your child is at least between the ages of seven and ten before you begin the whole allowance issue. Unless of course your child understands at an early age what an allowance is.

If you decide to give your child an allowance you will need to teach them the value of saving money. They will also be learning how to earn money, and that hard work does pay off. When it comes to chores some parents feel that this is their child’s responsibility and therefore something that they should not be paid for. If this is the case then you can make an agreement with them to do additional chores that you will pay them for. Again this shows them the value of a hard earned dollar. If you are a parent who sees nothing wrong with paying for chores then you can divide it up whichever way works best for your child. To help keep track of what chores are done you cold create a chore chart and check off each one as they are done. But what about just giving your child an allowance with no strings attached? Well this may be giving your child the wrong idea about how to earn money. If your child is getting paid for doing nothing, than they may get the idea that getting money is a very easy task and hard work is something that is not required.

Of course you do not want to overwork your child either. If they are given to heavy of a load they will only end up hating work. You want to keep the tasks simple such as cleaning their room, vacuuming, dusting. Some parents even choose to pay for good grades. This is also a very good idea as a way to motivate your child to work hard at school. Whether or not an allowance is a good idea for your children is your decision. You can read the advice and suggestions of others, but you have to decide what works best for your family. Before you even discuss this topic with your child, you need to make sure you already know exactly what you are going to do. Once you start something you do not want to change it later.