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Saturday, June 30, 2012

I don't believe in allowances

I was never a big fan of allowances.  Don't get me wrong...I think it's important for kids to understand about using money wisely but I also think money shouldn't be the main motivation for getting kids to do something.  Of course, having eight children and giving them all a generous allowance would have made it hard to pay the bills and put food on the table  :)  Really though, I think there are certain things that children should be expected to do just because they're members of the family...and that includes basic chores.  Everyone should be responsible for cleaning up their own messes and taking care of their belongings and helping keep the living areas clean.  I don't believe in paying kids for those kinds of things.  I don't believe in taking advantage of our kids either.  There are things that should be compensated in some way...whether it be in money, extra privileges, or something else agreed upon by both parent and child.  These include deep cleaning, extra babysitting, out of the ordinary yard work or periodic work projects.

Doing chores isn't fun for anyone but kids need to see that when everyone contributes, everyone reaps the benefits.  And we do certain things because we're a family.

Gotta have time for fun too!


3 comments:

  1. I remember getting 'a nickel for each bucket of drain rock shoveled' to go towards a Dairy Queen Blizzard!

    Love the pictures of Laura and Deklan...

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    1. ...and Emmalee...

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    2. And a nickel for each nail picked up from the gravel driveway...we decided to amend that one because someone obviously dumped a whole box of nails in the gravel and we were going to go broke paying all you kids :)

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