Do you pay your kids?

[mikehaugen]

Right now my 12yo daughter is being punished. She's been grounded all week and today she is mowing my 2.5 acres with a push mower. She has also spent a lot of time during the week weeding the garden. I don't mind mowing, but I'm thinking this could be an opportunity. I'm thinking maybe next year if she's not grounded, perhaps giving her something and handing the mowing duties over to her. She already has a lot of chores/responsibilities inside the house.

Normally I would think that there are certain things that are expected with no pay obviously, but maybe a couple things I could give her a little something to show her a reward for hard work. The two things of the top of my head would be weeding and mowing. Vacuuming, cleaning, taking garbage out, etc are already her responsibility. She is the oldest and none of the kids get any kind of allowance, but feel like maybe they need to feel like they "earned" something besides just being expected to do it. This would not be a lot of money (how much money does she really need?) I'm thinking like $10.

What say you?

 

[newbury]

Based on 4 children:
We always gave allowance based on things they were expected to do and took little time, taking out garbage was one of them, doing dishes w/ dishwasher, etc. but good grades were also important. We tried to get them in the habit of saving up money for "the future" toy they wanted. For 3 out of four it seemed to work very well, the 4th tends to spend $$ quickly. Allowances were on the order of $5 to $10 from the mid-80's thru the 90's.

For "long duration" chores, mowing and edging the lawn or shoveling snow for an hour or so we would give extra sometimes. Although for a several years starting about when he was 10 the oldest son thought mowing the 1/4 acre lawn with the self propelled was a SPECIAL PRIVILEGE and he had to bring home good grades to be ALLOWED to mow the lawn.

For rare longer jobs like painting Grandma's house they got a flat wage, usually about half minimum wage.

One of the strongest incentives I devised was the award system for A's. Good report cards were REQUIRED, but A's received $1 for the first and doubled for each additional. Thus:
1A=$1
2A's=$3 (1+2)
3A's=$7 (1+2+4)
4A's=$15 (1+2+4+8)
5A's= $31 (1+2+4+8+16)
6A's= $63 (1+2+4+8+16+32)

With occasional not including classes like a second gym class etc. One son routinely got $15 and twice the coveted $63. The rest usually got $7 to $15.

 

[tcreeley]

I like dollars for A's, etc.. I told my kids that I didn't care what grade they got, as long as they tried. One got better grades than the other, so we tried to find ways to equalize the amounts- B's could earn dollars too, not as much. School was painful enough without us getting on their case. I always insisted that they do their homework- and it was easy for me to find out as I taught in the same school. One in his senior year was dismissed early- earning credits through the summer at the local university. The other one was his class's valedictorian. They both did just what they had to growing up, but if you said you wanted something done -they did it. Machinery, carpentry held no interest for either of them - couldn't get it across! But they are both productive today.

 

[Pixguy]

My first reaction to reading the title was NO, but then after hearing what she already does around the house, if she does it well, my thought s now are sure, she sounds like a hard working kid who deserves to save a few bucks and treat once in awhile. Yes, teach/force her to save some and not blow it.

 

[dave1949]

Your daughter already has home chores (cleaning vacuuming, garbage, etc.) but you don't say how many hours per week she spends at these tasks, so it is hard to judge.

At 12-years-old, 2.5 acres with a push mower (22" with a motor, not self-propelled?) sounds like a lot to me. I don't know of many adults who do that either.

I think kids should have the right amount of chores to do on a consistent basis. I never paid our kids for doing chores. I'm not convinced that lots of work is a suitable punishment for children. It's certainly not reinforcing the idea that work is its own reward and something a person should take pride in doing well.

Rather than spending hours on the handle of a mower, maybe your daughter could be encouraged to undertake something more creative and instructive for the long-term that will develop her interests. If she happens to like yard work, then give her her own 1/4-1/2 acre to do with what she wants--within good judgement of course.

 

[Rustyiron]

Mine are completely paid for!:laughing:

 

[SPIKER]

Like others said I was kid I did chores as such they were chores, not jobs so pay was not expected for them or gotten. Doing jobs (mowing lawns or shoveling snow) for the people around the neighborhood was for pay. rather cheap pay based on what kids are asking for now days.
I like the idea of letting her make part of the yard her own! and for 2.5 acres maybe buy a cheap lawn tractor/mower and get her learning how to drive a head of time it will do a lot for her driving coordination in 3 years...

Mark

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Not for household chores. My view it's part of being a family, there are things that need to get done, and we all have to pitch in and help, so they all have certain responsibilities. However, there are certain extra jobs that I would like done, and I have paid for them. One example is scanning a bunch of pictures. I wanted them scanned, but didn't have time, so my son did them, I performed QC on his work before paying, and he had to redo any that were not right. He scanned over 7000.

 

[mikehaugen]

Thanks for the responses. Just to be clear, she already had chores/responsibilities, and is not compensated. Mowing I consider my job, but was considering giving that up to her as a way to earn money. As of right now, I don't expect it of her. It was just a idea, as at some point she will need/want money for things, and instead of just giving her an allowance, this would allow her to earn some money. Seems better to me than just giving her an allowance.

I never got paid for anything around the house until I started working for other people. Not sure how I got those "extras" before that, but assume they were just given to me. We don't have many neighbors and I doubt the ones we do have would be willing to pay her for anything.

 

[TomSeller]

If she could work for someone else and earn money during the time she is working outside for you, I think you should pay her. Inside the house is just family duty. When she is grounded she shouldn't be paid or paid 1/2 rate. But make sure the grounding is understood by her and fair to her. I would encourage her to work for money and whatever incentivizes her to earn more with better quality work, the better her life will be. You will do well and right by her, I am sure. She is lucky to have a good Dad.