Children and Chores: Teach Your Little Honey about Money!

Photo by woodleywonderworks

Now that I’m a parent, I think about things like how to teach my kids about money. Most people agree that children should do chores around the house and help out in age-appropriate ways. And most people also agree that it is valuable for children to receive an allowance to start learning about the value of money. But, it turns out, there is quite a bit of debate over whether or not an allowance should be tied to doing chore. First things first – I had to rid my mind of the image the word “chores” conjured up in my head – for some reason I equate it with churning butter, but I know in today’s world it is more likely to correspond to TIVO management. Though I understand the concept of wanting to teach kids that they have to earn money, I’m not into the idea of paying them do everyday things that are expected of members of any household. It didn’t feel right to me to tie an allowance to basics like making the bed.

I concluded I was comfortable with giving a weekly allowance, but then having room for the child to earn extra money by doing special “paid” chores – basically, things I normally hire someone to do, like wash my car. Some of these “big jobs” which are tedious to me are SO much fun for our kids! Our boys washed our car the other day (with a little help) and you’d be surprised what a great job a 4 year old and 20 month old can do! More than that, they had a great time and were so proud of the job they did. By tacking on a financial incentive to this great lesson in self-esteem, not only will I get a clean car, but my boys will start to build their concept of work and earning money.

Ok, so in addition to tying pay to “big” jobs, how much was I supposed to give for the basic weekly allowance? A dollar per year of age seems to be the going rate, which was appealing to me since my oldest child is only 4! And the lessons you can teach are manifold: saving, charity, planning and responsibility. Rather than just having the focus be on saving for a new toy, use this opportunity to teach other life lessons as well. Put away a certain percentage for charity, for savings and for purchases. Even wee ones will start learning how to budget, so it pays to start while they are young!
I know the impulse is often there to buy our children whatever they want to “show” them how much we love them. But I think the real way to show our children how much we love them is to give them the gifts of independence, self-esteem and security. Financial acumen – yes, even for a 4 year old – is a fabulous gift that keeps on giving! And, I can tell you first hand that you would never guess just how much fun a preschooler can have cleaning bird poop off swings and raking leaves – who would have thought there were such simple ways to make finance fun!