Here is a debate that I’ve been following for some time now that has many arguing their points. There seems to be two points to the argument:
No. If you give you children an allowance, they never learn about money and how to it works. If you simply give them something they have not earned they do not learn the good work habits to succeed in the real world. In essence, you are teaching your children that they have a since of entitlement to your money. Making them work teaches them that in life they will have to work to earn money.
Yes. You should give your child an allowance because it is your responsibility to take care of them and provide their wants and needs. You should let your children be children, there is plenty of time in life for them to work and earn money.
Regardless of which side of the equation you are on I feel the argument is irrelevant. What is more important is the lessons you are teaching your children in the process. Yes you should provide your child with a childhood, their wants needs and desires, but as a parent you also have the responsibility to teach your child how to be an able body in society as well.
When my wife and I first started the “Stokes Compensation plan”, we asked ourselves the same question. We decided that there we were going to devise a mix of the two. There are some behaviors and work ethics that needed to be compensated, yet there were some that we wanted them to know they should do regardless compensation. Here is the solution that we came up with.
To teach our children to be an able body in society, there are certain jobs that need to be done; such as keeping your area clean, taking care of your responsibly, and helping your neighbor. These chores on a household level are jobs that do not receive compensation. But there are also chores that the kids would not necessarily do; these are the jobs that deserve compensation. If our children completed a job that mom or dad would be responsible for, they would receive a “COMMISSION”. But I don’t think the focus should be on whether or not they get an allowance or commission. The focus should be on teaching your child how to budget and manage the money they do receive.
Recently, my son was asked to create and budget. Here is what he came up with.
We told him, since it was our job to ensure he is fed, his lunch will be an allowance. He, however, had to ensure the money we gave him it last all week. If he needed more money he had to earn it from his job (We provided a list of jobs he could do to earn extra money).
Since we have started, he has come to me every day to ask “am I on track with my budget?” Eventually we will have a talk about investing. But that is a lesson for another day!
Corey Stokes 