How much allowance do you give your kids?

[vi edit]

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.

Go look at tuition rates the last 10 years and see if you notice a pattern.

 

[Red Storm]

Never had one as a kid, also didn't get paid to do chores. Those were necessary tasks that had to be done, not seen as some kind of job that deserved a special reward.

I would get money on my birthday, and on occasions like if I got straight A's on my report card, but that was about it.

 

[shortylickens]

i got 5 bucks to do my chores and such.
Very little but my parents didnt normally make me pay for big stuff.

My buddy got 20 a week but he was expected to get everything except the groceries he ate.
If he wanted bubble gum or baseball cards or soda it was on him.
He actually ended up being very cheap and not fun to hang out with. I think that might be too much responsibility for an 8 year old.

 

[HomerSapien]

When my son was born, we put about $15 a month into a savings account. Then when he become mobile and started breaking things around the house, we use that to pay for fixing/ replacing newly broken items.

He is 3 now and that bank account has been flat for a while (probably 2 years). He does have an immense desire to save every coin he comes across. When he wants something at the stored and it is something we don't want to get him, we tell him he is paying for it. When we get home, he helps us count the money he owes.

It makes him stop to think about if he wants to give up his shiny gold doubloons (pennies, but he is a huge jake the pirate fan). He does do chores of feeding the dog and putting up the silverware from the dishwasher.

 

[HomerSapien]

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.

I completely agree. Babysitting is insanely expensive and considering they typically will leave giant mess after themselves, it seems like a scam. We do favors for friends and hold them to watching ours in return. Most of the time, we just don't go out anymore unless his daycare offers a parents night out in the guise of movie night for the kids.