How much allowance do you give your kids?

[Krazy4Real]

My parents said Food and a roof was my allowance. When I got my first out of home job at 12 they took 10% of everything I made until I moved out, for room and board...

wow....

 

[John Connor]

I used to get a buck fifty a week! Plenty for the ice cream man and I never bought Ice cream I was buying these Mexican candies living back in cali.

If your not use to it it will make you sick. LOL

 

[bignateyk]

I never had an allowance as a kid. It was understood that if I did all my chores promptly when asked and without bitching I could get most of the things I wanted (within reason).

 

[Kntx]

32 here with no kids. I did not receive an allowance as a kid. Had a paper route and later on in high school had a few different menial jobs. If I do have kids I'll likely provide them with an allowance (maybe $30 a week?) so they don't need a mcjob.

 

[mnewsham]

wow a 17 year old gets allowance? i definitely will not be doing that when we have a kid. if my kid wants money he will be getting a job when he's 14, just like i did and my wife did.

up until around that age though i will give an allowance just not sure how much yet. probably like $10 bucks. they can also earn their own money baby sitting or cutting grass, raking leaves, shoveling snow, etc.

give your kid an allowance, half the low level pot dealers in my highschool were only doing it because their parents wouldn't give them spending money.

This was in montgomery county.

 

[purbeast0]

give your kid an allowance, half the low level pot dealers in my highschool were only doing it because their parents wouldn't give them spending money.

This was in montgomery county.

yeah, because without an allowance they couldn't get a legit job, right, that makes total sense. they were dealing because they wanted to make money.

i found a job in montgomery county no problem when i was 14, as did many friends. i only got a job because i wanted a nintendo 64.

i think i'd be embarassed if i got an allowance at age 17.

 

[nageov3t]

at a certain point, a kid is likely going to want more than his allowance can pay for, at which point he'll go out and get a job.

I got my first job at 16 without my parents booting me out the door because I needed to pay for prom and earn enough money to pay for a class trip to Europe after graduation. neither of those were going to happen on $10-15/week.

 

[mnewsham]

yeah, because without an allowance they couldn't get a legit job, right, that makes total sense. they were dealing because they wanted to make money.

i found a job in montgomery county no problem when i was 14, as did many friends. i only got a job because i wanted a nintendo 64.

i think i'd be embarassed if i got an allowance at age 17.

Ha, your kids will hate you.

Look at the world right now, by the time you have kids it will be even worse, getting a part time job as a kid in the 80's, 90's and very early thousands wasn't so bad, after the economic crash however with the future looking bleak, you'd be lucky to get a part time job with a high school diploma right now in Montgomery county let alone not even finished with high school yet.

and of course kids want money, if you wont provide it for them at least in some capacity, they will find a way, legitimate or not, you might say you will raise your kids better than that, but that really has nothing to do with it, rich white kids always have the best weed.

 

[bignateyk]

32 here with no kids. I did not receive an allowance as a kid. Had a paper route and later on in high school had a few different menial jobs. If I do have kids I'll likely provide them with an allowance (maybe $30 a week?) so they don't need a mcjob.

What's wrong with a McJob? I worked menial jobs in highschool and college until I got my first internship. It taught me the value of getting a good education and the value of a dollar.

When you're making $5/hour you think twice about buying that $60 video game.

I'm glad my parents made me get a job when I turned 16.

 

[KidNiki1]

my minions each get $5 a week for helping their grandma (my mom) baby sit their little cousin when they get home from school. they are 11 and 8.

 

[purbeast0]

Ha, your kids will hate you.

Look at the world right now, by the time you have kids it will be even worse, getting a part time job as a kid in the 80's, 90's and very early thousands wasn't so bad, after the economic crash however with the future looking bleak, you'd be lucky to get a part time job with a high school diploma right now in Montgomery county let alone not even finished with high school yet.

and of course kids want money, if you wont provide it for them at least in some capacity, they will find a way, legitimate or not, you might say you will raise your kids better than that, but that really has nothing to do with it, rich white kids always have the best weed.

its very easy for kids to get jobs now a days, they are just lazy pieces of shit for the most part and want everything handed to them for free. that is more of the issue now.

i'm glad i got a job when i did though. i learned how to save early and money management at a pretty early age, and i think it's helped me with my finances now.

 

[Sonikku]

I see now I had a very rough childhood. I was paid a fee of only $50 a month for my allowance. I managed to talk my mother into doing $100 a month in high school, but her "lady friends" got jibber jabbing and they talked her into lowering it back to $50, saying one hundred is "crazy" for a kid. Gosh those were a few sweet months...

 

[nageov3t]

its very easy for kids to get jobs now a days

is it? I feel like employment statistics say otherwise.

I do routinely see "help wanted" signs in local fast food/deli places, but it seems to mostly be night shift-type stuff.

 

[Brainonska511]

For all the "get a job" talk in this thread, do you realize that the youth unemployment rate is pretty high?

 

[vi edit]

Never had allowances. We had basic chores when we were young that we did for rewards - going to movies, going out to eat (was a big deal in my house), new clothes, ect. I did not grow up in a wealthy household.

My wife and I make close to 5x what our parents did growing up so we're having troubles on how to impart the same modesty we had as kids on our own. It's not easy when money is much less an issue than it was for our parents.

We probably won't do allowances and go the same route as our parents - reward system. As kids get older and into "job" ages they'll work over the summer to pay for their fun stuff they want just as my wife and I did. If they work through the school year that's a question of school load and other things they are invovled in. My wife and both worked, were athletes, and still graduated top 10% of classes in high school so it's not like it's impossible. Time management is just as important as money management in that regard.

 

[bignateyk]

Never had allowances. We had basic chores when we were young that we did for rewards - going to movies, going out to eat (was a big deal in my house), new clothes, ect. I did not grow up in a wealthy household.

My wife and I make close to 5x what our parents did growing up so we're having troubles on how to impart the same modesty we had as kids on our own. It's not easy when money is much less an issue than it was for our parents.

We probably won't do allowances and go the same route as our parents - reward system. As kids get older and into "job" ages they'll work over the summer to pay for their fun stuff they want just as my wife and I did. If they work through the school year that's a question of school load and other things they are invovled in. My wife and both worked, were athletes, and still graduated top 10% of classes in high school so it's not like it's impossible. Time management is just as important as money management in that regard.

That was basically how I had it as a kid. My parents were pretty wealthy too. We never got an allowance, but my sister and I each had a list of chores to do. The more timely and eager we were about getting our chores done, the more willing our parents were to buy us stuff.

So basically we were perfectly behaved most of the time because the better behaved we were, the more stuff we got.

We had to take the trash out, mow the lawn, weed/water the gardens, shovel the snow, do the dishes, do the laundry, clean the house, help prepare dinner, and basically anything else they asked us to do.

This system works really well because you're also teaching your kid how to maintain a household. We even had to do our own taxes when we got jobs at 16.

 

[vi edit]

For all the "get a job" talk in this thread, do you realize that the youth unemployment rate is pretty high?

I attribute the "youth unemployment" more to the fact that so many households have much higher standards of living now than they did 20 years ago and people give their kids so much stuff that working to get it isn't necessary.

Now if you are talking the 20+ year old demographic that's a different discussion.

 

[purbeast0]

For all the "get a job" talk in this thread, do you realize that the youth unemployment rate is pretty high?

it's because they are lazy. my brother in law and my little brother didn't even look for jobs until they were like 19 years old. they found one no problem once they started looking. my brother in law has had 2 jobs since then. 1 was in the summer at quiznos, then when he came back from school he got one at kmart. my little brother had one (i forget where) then quit to work in a kitchen in a hotel and is now a fulltime employee there.

sure, location definitely plays some consideration into it, but around here they are a dime a dozen.

and let's be real, the kids getting allowance aren't out looking for jobs. they enjoy getting the handouts for not having to do anything, yet having mommy and daddy paying for their iphones and video games.

a "high unemployment rate" for kids doesn't mean jack shit when the majority of them aren't even out looking for jobs.

 

[nageov3t]

at least as of a year ago, the youth unemployment rate was still twice as high as the overall unemployment rate -- http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2013/04/06/number-of-the-week-youth-unemployment-at-22-9/

note that only includes people actively working/looking for work (not those aren't looking for a job)

and let's be real, the kids getting allowance aren't out looking for jobs. they enjoy getting the handouts for not having to do anything, yet having mommy and daddy paying for their iphones and video games.

it's true, I was living so high on the hog off the $10/week that my parents gave me that there was really no reason for me to work.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Kids should be taught to be self-sufficient, not live looking for handouts. Give a kid an allowance and he's got money for a week. Teach a kid to steal other kids allowances and he's got money for a lifetime.

 

[surfsatwerk]

Can't recall how much. If we were in school and playing a sport we weren't allowed to have jobs. Jobs were for the summertime.

 

[vi edit]

There's all kinds of problems with "youth unemployment" statistics.

For starters it's for 16-24 year olds. A college educated 24 year old who's out of a job is in a much different situation than a 16 year old still in high school, living with their parents. Two very different levels of need/desperation there.

You also have ever increasing minimum wage requirements that make retailers limit positions because they have to pay so damn much for them. Illinois is pushing to raise minimum wage to $10 an hour. I'm sorry but a kid filling up my soda at a movie theatre shouldn't be making $10 an hour. All it does is raise the already ridiculous movie prices, concessions and other costs up and limits the number of shifts that an employer will be willing to schedule/fill and thus making for longer waits/dirtier facility/ect.

Apply that same reasoning to fast food joints as well. Same problem there.

Then you have parents with more money than brains that shower their kids with handouts for doing things that should be done anyway and you take away the incentive to work at all.

Just lots of different stuff going on behind that number.

 

[vi edit]

One thing that absolutely boggles my mind is baby sitting. The going rate now is $10 an hour (CASH) for one kid, up to $15-$20 an hour for two kids.

Most of the time when we go out, we'll have the kids fed, and in PJ's before the babysitter gets there at 6:30 or 7:00 and they are in bed by 7:30-8:00. They have 30-60 minutes of real work, and then the next three hours are sitting watching TV, reading a book, or crusing the web. They'll clear $50-$60 cold hard cash for an hour of real work and it's practically impossible to ever find one that actually wants to.

They are clearing more per hour than I do with a college education and supporting hospital systems...and they freaking turn it down to go out and do something else instead.

It just can't fathom getting a better gig than that when I was 16.

 

[nageov3t]

There's all kinds of problems with "youth unemployment" statistics.

For starters it's for 16-24 year olds. A college educated 24 year old who's out of a job is in a much different situation than a 16 year old still in high school, living with their parents. Two very different levels of need/desperation there.

You also have ever increasing minimum wage requirements that make retailers limit positions because they have to pay so damn much for them. Illinois is pushing to raise minimum wage to $10 an hour. I'm sorry but a kid filling up my soda at a movie theatre shouldn't be making $10 an hour. All it does is raise the already ridiculous movie prices, concessions and other costs up and limits the number of shifts that an employer will be willing to schedule/fill and thus making for longer waits/dirtier facility/ect.

Apply that same reasoning to fast food joints as well. Same problem there.

Then you have parents with more money than brains that shower their kids with handouts for doing things that should be done anyway and you take away the incentive to work at all.

Just lots of different stuff going on behind that number.

it's definitely a complex number, but the percentage of kids that are engaged in the workforce has dropped like a stone over the past 10 years or so and I don't think you can lay all/most of the blame on simply "kids today are lazy."

I don't think kids today are significantly more lazy than they were 10 years ago at least.

 

[SheHateMe]

My mom used to give us $10 each a week. We'd get a few more dollars if we did extra work on top of our chores. At that age, most of it went to "Picnics" with our friends which involved all of us getting together and putting some money in a pot and then going to the dollar store and buying a bunch of a shit and then we'd setup under a tree and eat it. Sometimes, we'd start a small fire and roast marshmallows.

...I really miss being a kid. $10 at that age was like a million bucks.

I stopped getting allowance when I was like 15. That's when I got my first job.