Do you know what the purpose of allowance is?

[Linflas]

Originally posted by: OrganizedChaos
to give the kid less motivation to steal things.

My parents used a more direct method to motivate me in that regard.

 

[rh71]

money management too... they must save to get what they want.

I didn't get an allowance but I started working p/t jobs at 14 though so it was all good.

 

[imported_goku]

Originally posted by: Babbles

Originally posted by: LordMaul
Allowances are for yuppie kids who rarely do anything to deserve it, and result in a demanding kid who feels he is owed something for putting out little to nothing in return.

That seems to sound just a wee bit like Goku. . .

Oh and BTW babbles, I've already admitted that I'm a trust fund baby, so stfu already, nobody cares. And just have you know, from the time of when I was born to when I was 12, I had no allowance, my dad then began giving my sister and I an allowance but when he'd forget every week to pay us, I eventually counted it all up which came out to a total of $1200+ and then he basically said ****** it you can buy stuff when you need it from us.. :roll: I couldn't care less that allowance allows a kid to spend money on things that have questionable value, the point of an allowance as mentioned in many posts in this thread is to teach the ****** kid money management, something all of the women in our house (or at least who grew up here) seemingly lack.

 

[lokiju]

The woman and I talked about this and both of us growing up didn't have a set allowance but would be provided with what we either needed or wanted if it warranted and we were on top of our chores.

That's our plan for our kids in the future as well.

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: goku

Originally posted by: Babbles

Originally posted by: LordMaul
Allowances are for yuppie kids who rarely do anything to deserve it, and result in a demanding kid who feels he is owed something for putting out little to nothing in return.

That seems to sound just a wee bit like Goku. . .

Oh and BTW babbles, I've already admitted that I'm a trust fund baby, so stfu already, nobody cares. And just have you know, from the time of when I was born to when I was 12, I had no allowance, my dad then began giving my sister and I an allowance but when he'd forget every week to pay us, I eventually counted it all up which came out to a total of $1200+ and then he basically said ****** it you can buy stuff when you need it from us.. :roll: I couldn't care less that allowance allows a kid to spend money on things that have questionable value, the point of an allowance as mentioned in many posts in this thread is to teach the ****** kid money management, something all of the women in our house (or at least who grew up here) seemingly lack.

thats pretty much true for most of your posts - nobody cares

 

[yosuke188]

Allowance in small amount is the best. It teaches the kids to value money and manage it well without making them spoiled.

Chores are something you do regardless, some tougher ones for a little extra money.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

Giving a kid something like $5/week isn't going to spoil them. But it WILL teach them how to save money. Want a new game? Save up. Willing to go for a used instead? That saves money. Lesson learned. Want candy? You got money. Do you get candy or save it for a toy?

...but if you're giving someone $100/week as an allowance, that's too high. If they're a teen, there's jobs they can find. Even if it's just doing yard work for the neighbors.

 

[imported_goku]

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: goku

Originally posted by: Babbles

Originally posted by: LordMaul
Allowances are for yuppie kids who rarely do anything to deserve it, and result in a demanding kid who feels he is owed something for putting out little to nothing in return.

That seems to sound just a wee bit like Goku. . .

Oh and BTW babbles, I've already admitted that I'm a trust fund baby, so stfu already, nobody cares. And just have you know, from the time of when I was born to when I was 12, I had no allowance, my dad then began giving my sister and I an allowance but when he'd forget every week to pay us, I eventually counted it all up which came out to a total of $1200+ and then he basically said ****** it you can buy stuff when you need it from us.. :roll: I couldn't care less that allowance allows a kid to spend money on things that have questionable value, the point of an allowance as mentioned in many posts in this thread is to teach the ****** kid money management, something all of the women in our house (or at least who grew up here) seemingly lack.

thats pretty much true for most of your posts - nobody cares

you're probably right, but guess what? Nobody cares! :laugh:

 

[pontifex]

i never had an allowance. if i wnated something i had to work for it.
from about the time i was 12 i mowed lawns during the summer. at one point i had about 5 lawns i would mow a week. over the course of about 3 years i made $2000 and used that to buy my 1st car.

my family didn't, and still doesn't have a lot of money.

 

[nakedfrog]

I pay the kids a pittance for their chores. My oldest mostly uses hers to buy Gameboy games and shoes. The middle kid is currently using his to pay for dishes he broke due to negligence.

Originally posted by: goku
I'm hardly spoiled. It's ironic that when ever I argue with my dad about his daughters+wife wasting money, he then says "I give you what ever you want"...

K, thats great dad, considering that I don't ask very much from you, that's kind of meaningless. Is the fact that you 'give me what ever I want' give the girls a license to waste money?

The fact that he makes the money gives him license to do whatever the hell he wants with it, and you should just keep your fat piehole shut about it, unless asked.

 

[MonkeyFaces]

Is it just me, because whenever it comes to children and childhood in general, every AT member flocks in droves to these threads, bragging about how they worked the fields from sunrise to sunset and spun textiles from dusk to sunrise by candle light. I for one, am spoiled rotten and I had a psp, xbox, dimension 8400 (high end 6800nu at the time), and a 40 foot tower of video games when I was 15 (one year ago). Yet, I am not the degenerate idiot, crack junkie that sweatshop-childhood AT members presume I am, or would be. Point is, kids can get away with luxuries and still turn out half decent without being beaten down or enslaved.

 

[dullard]

In my family, I got two allowances.

1) I got $50 a month for anything I needed.
2) I got $3+ a week for doing chores (the more chores we did, the more we got).
This was 10-20 years ago for those who want to adjust for inflation.

Note: don't go calling me a rich yuppy (for a long time we were poor). I had enough friends call me that when they heard I got such a high allowance. That is, until they heard the rest of the story. My parents paid for NOTHING else. No clothes, no snacks, no shoes, no entertainment, no toys, etc. If I wanted to buy new clothes for school, I had to buy it with that $50/month money. Well, they did spend $50 on us for birthdays and $100 on Christmas, but other than that they bought us nothing.

It was a fantastic lesson in money management. Before that policy, they were spending well over $50/month on my sister because she always begged and pleaded for the $75 pair of Guess/Pepe jeans that she would wear once. After the switch to allowance, she realized she could wait 1.5 months for that one pair of jeans or she could buy 3 pairs of inexpensive jeans. If she really wanted to splurge on something, she could do a lot more chores and work for it.

It instilled Rossman like spending habits in me. While all of my friends went paycheck to paycheck constantly out of money, I socked half of everything (even my allowance) away in a bank account. I got out of college with a positive net worth (sure I had $9000 in student loans for all school up to the PhD, but I had >$9000 worth of items). I bought a wonderful big house right after college and will have it paid off in under 10 total years. Etc.

So to me, an allowance both taught (1) work ethic: work hard to get what you want and (2) money management skills.

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: MonkeyFaces
Is it just me, because whenever it comes to children and childhood in general, every AT member flocks in droves to these threads, bragging about how they worked the fields from sunrise to sunset and spun textiles from dusk to sunrise by candle light. I for one, am spoiled rotten and I had a psp, xbox, dimension 8400 (high end 6800nu at the time), and a 40 foot tower of video games when I was 15 (one year ago). Yet, I am not the degenerate idiot, crack junkie that sweatshop-childhood AT members presume I am, or would be. Point is, kids can get away with luxuries and still turn out half decent without being beaten down or enslaved.

probably because most of the people on here like to brag about how they have so much money and this or that or just act like spoiled little brats.

 

[imported_goku]

Originally posted by: dullard
In my family, I got two allowances.

1) I got $50 a month for anything I needed.
2) I got $3+ a week for doing chores (the more chores we did, the more we got).
This was 10-20 years ago for those who want to adjust for inflation.

Note: don't go calling me a rich yuppy (for a long time we were poor). I had enough friends call me that when they heard I got such a high allowance. That is, until they heard the rest of the story. My parents paid for NOTHING else. No clothes, no snacks, no shoes, no entertainment, etc. If I wanted to buy new clothes for school, I had to buy it with that $50/month money.

It was a fantastic lesson in money management. Before that policy, they were spending well over $50/month on my sister because she always begged and pleaded for the $75 pair of Guess/Pepe jeans that she would wear once. After the switch to allowance, she realized she could wait 1.5 months for that one pair of jeans or she could buy 3 pairs of inexpensive jeans. If she really wanted to splurge on something, she could do a lot more chores and work for it.

It instilled Rossman like spending habits in me. While all of my friends went paycheck to paycheck constantly out of money, I socked half of everything (even my allowance) away in a bank account. I got out of college with a positive net worth (sure I had $9000 in student loans for all school up to the PhD, but I had >$9000 worth of items). I bought a wonderful big house right after college and will have it paid off in under 10 total years. Etc.

So to me, an allowance both taught (1) work ethic: work hard to get what you want and (2) money management skills.

While the idea that you need to pay for your clothing kind of irks me a bit, it's probably a good lesson overall. I can't really put it into words but when you're a kid, even though what you're being paid is miniscule and may seem ridiculous at times (which it is if you look at the surface only) but this sort of thing translates to the real world whether people realize it or not.

In life, while if you have a job, you'd normally be able to purchase pants that expensive due to your paycheck, therefore making that 'amount per month' seem unreasonable, it is reasonable in a sense. What is easily affordable for a kid@$50 a month translates to what is easily affordable for an adult@$2000 a month. It's the same concpet, there are somethings you can buy on the spot, movie tickets for kids or going out on the town for adults, and then there are other things you can't buy on the spot such as a video card for kids or a bicycle, what ever, and a car for an adult.

So while $50 a month may seem unreasonable for a kid due to their parent's being able to buy them easily, it translates to big things in life so therefore there is always a 'purchasing ceiling' where there will be things you can buy on the spot and others things you can't, and therefore you have to save up for. The problem with a lot of kids these days is they don't know how to ****** save, can you guess what happens to these kids? They become adults, problems that were small as a kid have now blown completely out of proportions.

 

[DaShen]

Originally posted by: goku
I have an idea what the purpose of an allowance is. Do you think an allowance loses it's purpose if you give it to the kid with out having them work? I want to see what are some answers people make on this forum. Personally I think it's worth it to give a child an allowance.

IMO, The purpose of allowance is to make your kids understand the value of money.

If you give your kid an allowance that is much more than he/she needs, she will grow up only valuing things that are expensive. The allowance would be for things that the kid wanted but did not need everything else the parents should take care of for that time.

I got an allowance from 8-12. I got 8 dollars a month when I was 8, 9/month when I was nine.... 12/month when I was 12. After that, I got money for mowing the lawn (10 each time).

I learned to appreciate money that way. What was funny was most of the time I would save up my money till Christmastime to buy gifts, but I realize now that most of the time my parents were slipping a few more bills into the clerks hands before we left (at least when I was first starting to get an allowance).

 

[purbeast0]

I think allowances are a good thing. I was given an allowance which usually was on a weekly basis, and I the amount of dollars for hte grade I was in. For instance, when I was in 3rd grade, I received $3/week. 5th grade, $5/week. 7th grade, $7/week. I also started to get more $$ for doing other chores that weren't the normal. I would get paid for painting the basement or something of that much time. Or raking the yard. Stuff that wasn't like doing dishes, folding clothes, taking out trash, etc.

Then when I was 14 and wanted an N64, I went out and got my first job. I held it all the way through college. I definitely think having my own job that early helped teach me a lot of responsibility.

When I have kids, I will give my kids allowances. however the only thing is that they will be severely lucky in that they probably won't have to purchase their own video games, because I'm going to be buying all of the games for myself and they can just play them w/out spending their own $$$

 

[mobobuff]

I got a weekly $2 allowance, and $5 for mowing the lawn. I always helped around the house. I greatly appreciate the value of money and hard work today. Just giving a kid money without having them do anything might not be a good idea, but it wouldn't be the sole contributor to a greedy or lazy attitude.

 

[Garet Jax]

Originally posted by: LordMaul
Allowances are for yuppie kids who rarely do anything to deserve it, and result in a demanding kid who feels he is owed something for putting out little to nothing in return.

As long as we don't generalize....

 

[electrosoccertux]

Originally posted by: MrChad

Originally posted by: LordMaul
Allowances are for yuppie kids who rarely do anything to deserve it, and result in a demanding kid who feels he is owed something for putting out little to nothing in return.

In my house, my brother and I were paid an allowance in exchange for doing a set of regular chores, which included cleaning the house every week during the summer, cleaning the dishes, emptying the trash, keeping our rooms tidy, doing yardwork when required and basically anything else our parents asked for.

EDIT: It's a good way to teach fiscal responsibility. Our allowance wasn't particularly large. When we got older and got jobs, we stopped earning an allowance, but we continued to do the same chores.

But you already live in the house, isn't that allowance enough?/mom

Gotta say that one really pissed me off. Cause she'd just add stuff to the list and say "well then move out if you don't like it."

 

[AbAbber2k]

Originally posted by: Xanis
Allowance is fine as long as the child pulls his or her own weight within the family. Children should not get an allowance because they help out around the house... that is just something that they should do as part of the family. They should get an allowance to learn how to manage money properly, and the allowance should not be large at all. They should be given a low amount, then if they want more, they can do extra work outside of their family duties.

 

[Ausm]

Never got any allowance as a child but was told to get a job when I was 12 (Yes, my father and stepmother are douchebags) I did get allowance in my last marriage of 20/week but that kinda sucked because at the time I was smoking 30/week

Ausm

 

[DaShen]

Originally posted by: AbAbber2k

Originally posted by: Xanis
Allowance is fine as long as the child pulls his or her own weight within the family. Children should not get an allowance because they help out around the house... that is just something that they should do as part of the family. They should get an allowance to learn how to manage money properly, and the allowance should not be large at all. They should be given a low amount, then if they want more, they can do extra work outside of their family duties.

BEST POST IN THIS THREAD SO FAR

 

[MonkeyFaces]

Just realized this, but the formula of this thread is...
1. OP states allowances are to teach children how to manage money
2. Poster says the exact same thing in slighty altered wording.
3. Poster tells life story about sweatshop labor in 3rd world, communist country
4. Responding poster says he/she disagrees with previous poster, but says the same exact thing in slightly altered wording.
5. Responding poster tells life story about serving in combat at 8 years old for a communist government in a 3rd world country.
6. Rinse and repeat
6bOr, someone just inserts life story about agricultural labor in 3rd world, communist country, disregarding the rule about repeating what the op says in slightly altered wording.

Please stop repeating that you think allowances are good for teaching money management in Croatian, Hungarian, Russian, Romanian, German, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Thai, Tagolog, Mexican, Colombian, Bolivian, etc. Just state your life story about back breaking labor and immense physical torture at 2 years old, like you intend to, and just move on.

 

[imported_goku]

Originally posted by: MonkeyFaces
Just realized this, but the formula of this thread is...
1. OP states allowances are to teach children how to manage money
2. Poster says the exact same thing in slighty altered wording.
3. Poster tells life story about sweatshop labor in 3rd world, communist country
4. Responding poster says he/she disagrees with previous poster, but says the same exact thing in slightly altered wording.
5. Responding poster tells life story about serving in combat at 8 years old for a communist government in a 3rd world country.
6. Rinse and repeat
6bOr, someone just inserts life story about agricultural labor in 3rd world, communist country, disregarding the rule about repeating what the op says in slightly altered wording.

Please stop repeating that you think allowances are good for teaching money management in Croatian, Hungarian, Russian, Romanian, German, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Thai, Tagolog, Mexican, Colombian, Bolivian, etc. Just state your life story about back breaking labor and immense physical torture at 2 years old, like you intend to, and just move on.

MAN, this night is just too funny! I've been laughing my ass off all night long!

 

[Penth]

I read that if you want to teach your kids better money management (i.e. saving) that you should slowly extend the amount of time between allowances and increase the amount each time so instead of getting $5 4 times per month you give them $10 2 times per month. And then $20 once per month and so on. The reasoning is because some kids don't worry about saving because there is always another $5 coming in a couple of days if they blow their $5 right away. I think the author of the article said that eventually they were given one allowance per year and they had to manage that for the year. Anyway, it sounds like a good idea to me, but I would definetly have the kids work up to time between allowances and have them help.

I also agree that the kids should help around the house but sometimes they need to do it without being paid. I have some cousins that wouldn't do anything without getting paid even when they were older. I never talk to them now though.