Chores/Allowance -- Does This Sound Reasonable?

I think it sounds fair and decent.

Though personally like another post-I don't get paid to clean up after everyone else (and myself) so noone else does either.

Growing up we were raised that chores where a way to make everything go smoother for the whole family and we were each expected to help. There was no monetary gain from doing things. I'm planning this approach for my children as they get older. My oldest is 8 and so far so good!

What you're doing is perfect! Make sure that $1 is going into a piggy bank and when he collects it have him put it in there. This is also a good time to start teaching him savings and spending :)

My son is six and that's what we do with him. :-D Your idea sounds reasonable to me. He'll learn responsibility, a sense of accomplishment, taking pride in his belongings and surroundings, saving money, etc. This is great! :-)

I think it's a good place to start. I suggest a chore chart that he can interact with like putting a sticker on the chore once it has been completed. Piggy banks are so fun and at the end of the month you should take him out to spend it on something he likes. Can't go too crazy with $4-5 haha and make sure that you let him know that mommy or daddy will not cover the rest. Keep the chores simple (you didn't specify what they would be). You don't want to hold him responsible for basically cleaning the whole house like some parents I know. Don't get discouraged if it doesn't work out like you had hope... You just need to change your game plan.

You could also do something else, but similar, like have two jars (one empty and one with marbles or something else that you can get from the dollar store) and label the empty jar with his reward (like $5 or something simple but special). Once the reward jar has all of the marbles in it from the other jar he gets that reward. You would have to keep the jars out of reach so he can't be sneaky ;) and also limit it to 3 marbles a day (in accordance to his chore chart). Just an idea :)
Good Luck

Here is my view on this. Chores are part of living in the household to which we all contribute and should not be tied to a reward of any sort. However, i think an allowence is great if it is tied to doing extra work. So a five year old should be expected to clean his bathroom counter, take out his trash, make his bed, clear his plate, feed the dog, etc. But if the chores are sort of extras, like vacumning the first floor or washing dad's car, then I see it as a good source for earning some money. It is a hard boundary to find, I know.

I think your little system sounds great and I think 10-20 cents per day is perfect for his age if you can afford it in the long run and across multiple kids :)

Maybe think about a plan for how he uses his money. we are worknon on one for my daughter where some proportion of her money can be spent and some saved. Haven't gotten the proportions decided yet.

I think it sound good. He's young and if you take him to the dollar store that is 4-5 items he can buy. chores are good for children. It teaches them responsibility. Make sure he saves some in another piggy bank for savings.

I don't get paid to do housework, neither do the kids ;)

My son is 15 - he has been helping around the house since birth I think. LOL

I never called it chores - it was simply what family members do to help each other. I never paid him an allowance until recently. When he turned 13, I added lawn mowing to his list of helping. Since his mowing was saving me vast amounts of money, and his little needs and wants were $5 here and $10 there and killing my budget, I needed a better budget.

He now receives $20 a month. That covers payment for lawn mowing - because I did tell him I would pay him for that, and general house help, and just for his breathing and being. He can do whatever he wants with that money - save it up for a big ticket item, spend it on small frivolities, buy extra lunch at school with it, oh, and buy Mom presents with it. :)

What he has learned is to save and plan for things - like PS3 games and Christmas. He does get birthday money and gift cards from family, and occasionally I throw him a random $5 or $10 just because, so he can save it up pretty quickly.

I think a $1 a week for a 5 year old, for additional household help is more than than fair. It may be a good idea to get him two or three piggy banks - one for saving, one for tithing or charity (if you do that), and one for anytime spending money. Let him decide what to put in each bank, but give him examples of how to save a portion of what he earns.

Oh, and if he learns how to wash windows - please, please, please, send him to my house.

Good Luck
God Bless

my 2 year old loves to help me empty the dishwasher, i make sure there are no knives or sharp things in there first. He likes to help me put the laundry up i.e. hand me the hangers or each piece of laundry. he even tries to fold the small towels and washclothes. of course i have to refold them most of the time but it is good practice. we also have a really small vaccum my hubby picked up at a thrift store and he loves to vaccum. he likes to dust. when i go grocery shopping he likes to hand me items from the bags and then put the bags in the drawer we keep them in. lots of small little things. I love that you are doing the chores thing, bravo!!!

yeah that is reasonable as long as the chores are reasonable FOR his age, for me id even do one chore on the weekend like clean his room or put his clothes away and he can get .50 for each of those chores

I don't have any experience, but this is exactly what I want to do!

I know you have a ton of answers already but I love it when I hear parents implementing chores. It is an awesome thing to teach your children responsibility and how to earn a buck!

At our house we do a chore chart (I have 4 kids but only 2 are really ready right now). I actually pay $0.50 per day for my 5 year old and $50 a month for my 11 year old. I know, I know, you are probably thinking this is WAY too much, but here is the big picture. For my 5 year old, a per day allowance allows us to track how he is doing much closer and allows him to see the benefit sooner. At 5 you don't understand time as much and instant gratification is a much more successful technique in teaching him to do his chores.

The reason I pay so much is so I have something to work with in teaching him about money. I pay weekly with him, and the first thing we do is look at the chart and see if he actually did his chores all week, any day missed results in no pay for that day. Then I give him the money he earned and show him what he did not earn by not completing his chores. He then has to take some out to save and some to tythe, both of my boys have a pre-determined percent. And "yes" at 5 my son gets it, we look at his savings so he can watch his money grow physically (we keep it in a safe until it is enough to put in a bank). Another reason I pay so much is then he actually has enough to reap the reward of earning money which is to buy something for himself - this is SO fun for him. This also takes me off the hook for buying stuff for my kids when we go to the store, they have their own money, if they want it, they can buy it themselves. There have been many occasions where they didn't have enough money on them and couldn't get what they wanted. It is a great way to teach them to save up for things as I also do not let them borrow from each other, cash only, if you don't have it, you can't afford it.

Here is the list of chores I have for my 5 year old:

Monday - clean the bathrooms (just sinks, counters, and toilet, no floors or bathtub)
Tuesday - dusting (whole house)
Wednesday - help with laundry
Thursday - pick up the sun room
Friday - put away the shoe basket (big job for a family of 6)
Saturday - water the plants
Sunday - off

Now, he is not very good at any of it yet but he tries real hard and does not complain which makes it all worth it. In addition to this list, both boys are required to do the dishes after dinner each night, unload the dishwasher each morning, pick up their room every day, make their beds, etc. I call those types of chores "Daily Maintenance", like brushing your teeth. You don't get paid for just general tidiness.

Hope this helps, I think you are on the right track, you won't regret setting this standard for your child now. Enjoy!

I think you

I tried set money making things for the kids to do and in my case, it didn't work very well. They have there regular things to do but when they want to earn money they ask for "extra" things. They get paid right then based on the quality of the work (like real life). It is later divided into, 10% God money, 20% spending, 20% presents and 50% car. Yes, they're saving for a car and luckily have a good start on this because of these extra chores. Anyway, that's what WE do! Good luck!

It is important to be clear about childhood development. Very young children think only in terms of the now, in concrete terms, and are egocentric. When you try and introduce ideas based on the future, that are abstract, or concern others, before they are developmentally ready, you can create frustration for yourself. Hard work, saving money, and delayed gratification are abstract and future related ideas.

Your son is still young. Let him be young. His job right now is to develop his motor skills, imagination, problem solving through play, etc. There will be plenty of time when he is a little older to teach him the more mature concepts.