Raise your hands if you, like me, are completely befuddled by allowances?
Way back when my kids started doing regular chores (let’s say, around the ages of 5 and 6 for the boys), I figured it was high time to offer them up some kind of incentive for their help around the house. Even though their “help,” more times than not, involved me re-doing the tasks they were asked to complete when they weren’t looking (wouldn’t want to damage their fragile egos, you know).
I remember thinking about what would be the perfect amount to compensate and finally, my husband and I agreed that $1.00 a week was enough, considering their ages and all.
Here’s the thing about allowances, they only work if you actually remember to give the incentive you have promised. I must’ve missed that in my “Allowances for Kids” seminar. A’hem.
Anyway, a few years passed and the allowance subject came up again, this time during a paticularly difficult period of non-chore doing and downright messiness with the boys. I had made chore charts. I had reminders plastered all over the house. I was driving myself crazy trying to find ways to get them to make their beds and put their dirty clothes in the hamper each morning, let alone brush their own teeth.
Come on. Brushing one’s teeth should be as natural as breathing . . . not a chore. Oh, the joys of boys!
So I was willing to give this whole allowance thing a run, yet again, in the hopes of getting a little more chore action from them. Again, after a few weeks, we all forgot. But I still made them brush their teeth.
Fast forward to last month. My boys are now 9 and 11 years old and I decided that since they’ve been fairly successful in completing at least a few basic tasks every day (like making beds, picking up clothes, feeding the dog and yes!occasionally brushing their teeth and breathing all on their own) it wasagain time to discuss (cough, cough) allowances.
But how much to offer them? True, when I asked them to unload and load the dishwasher the other day they both looked at me and said, “How do we do that?”
I am cowering in shame here people, how is it that they don’t know how to do this? How have I managed in eleven years of parenting to overlook providing them with this most important life skill, that of being able to unload and load a dishwasher properly?
No worries, they’ve got it down pat now. But still, the conundrum remains. How much to you pay out in allowances each week? Or should it be a monthly payment? Payment plan? PayPal? What?
Carrie Blankenship is the mother of three (four, if you count her goofy puppy). She writes her way through motherhood at Stop Screaming I’m Driving! She accepts bribes of lattes (especially Starbucks) and offers of free babysitting. If you’re really lucky, she may even do your laundry. She can be contacted at carrieb-at-seattlemomblogs-dot-com.
|