What age should kids get an allowance, or should they?

[Rad1um]

You'd think with all that experience, then you would've learned to not make baseless assumptions about another anonymous user.

Children are expensive and exhausting. Their allowance is the food I put on the table; clothes on their back; and all the various luxuries I afford them.

Allowance is silly. Kids should be doing these things to earn their keep.

This is what I base my "assumptions" on.

So apparently you are a parent and your kid(s) are CLEARLY a burden to you. Nobody told you to have a kid. I dont give a shit if it hurts your finances, if its EXPENSIVE and EXHAUSTING. That is YOUR OWN problem that you created for yourself when you decided to become a parent, not mine, not society and least of all not your kids fault.

Deal with it.

[Crummy]

Kids should NEVER get an allowance. Thats just a handout and teaches that its OK to be on welfare. They should get PAID for doing certain chores that arent something they should already be doing like cleaning their room. Pay should be reserved for hard jobs like mowing grass, washing the car, shoveling snow etc.. And the amount your chart shows kids getting is asinine!! I never got more than 50 cents for doing ANY chore

Well that's enough reason for anyone to not reward kids for helping out and teaching them the value of money, and that time=money.
Hey everybody, Orlong never recieved more than 50 cents for anything, we all need to change our values. Like, right now.

[oplawlz]

Children are expensive and exhausting. Their allowance is the food I put on the table; clothes on their back; and all the various luxuries I afford them.

This is just wrong-headed. You made those children, feeding clothing and providing shelter for them is your responsibility.

The luxuries I agree with, and how you decide to dole them out is your prerogative, of course. You're just missing an opportunity to prepare them for life after moving out.

[Felaris Stormrage]

This is what I base my "assumptions" on.

So apparently you are a parent and your kid(s) are CLEARLY a burden to you. Nobody told you to have a kid. I dont give a shit if it hurts your finances, if its EXPENSIVE and EXHAUSTING. That is YOUR OWN problem that you created for yourself when you decided to become a parent, not mine, not society and least of all not your kids fault.

Deal with it.

It is societies' fault. They need us (citizens) to reproduce, or their civilization will crumble to another nation. It is expensive and exhausting, because good jobs are scarce and the cost of having children as well as supporting them is astronomical.

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This is just wrong-headed. You made those children, feeding clothing and providing shelter for them is your responsibility.

The luxuries I agree with, and how you decide to dole them out is your prerogative, of course. You're just missing an opportunity to prepare them for life after moving out.

They have more than enough time to prepare themselves financially, before leaving the nest. Get jobs at 14, 15, or 16 and begin making their own money. That will teach them.

[Deleted]

Kids should NEVER get an allowance. Thats just a handout and teaches that its OK to be on welfare. They should get PAID for doing certain chores that arent something they should already be doing like cleaning their room. Pay should be reserved for hard jobs like mowing grass, washing the car, shoveling snow etc.. And the amount your chart shows kids getting is asinine!! I never got more than 50 cents for doing ANY chore

I wouldn't be surprised if you would send your kids to the salt mines lol. "Need to earn your up-keep!"

[Darkeon]

I'm all for paying a little sum for chores.

[ghotihook]

I don’t give my kids an allowance. Sometimes I’ll give them money if they go above and beyond what’s expected out of them, but other than that, nothing.

I like your style, this is exactly what I would do.

[A Young Munch]

When my grandmother would visit us, she'd always try to give me money but my parents insisted I turn it down, which I did. I never got money for doing chores that included mowing the lawn, weed whacking and cleaning dog shit from the yard, and it frustrated me when I was younger, but I didn't have a garbage childhood so I don't have a leg to stand on. I do wish I would've gotten an allowance if only for the fact that it would help me manage my money from a young age, since I was irresponsible and pissed money away in college, which I regret and corrected real fast.

[kail]

There is no single answer to what's best in raising a child and I see pros/cons with allowances. I was never given money for doing chores, but my mother still spoiled me with entertainment (video games and Disney trips).

A major pro I give to allowances is teaching kids basic finance. They are responsible for keeping the cash safe and spending it wisely. You can provide some advice on their spending but see mistakes being a great teacher.

[ohwell]

As soon as they start doing stuff around the house.

That pay for doing dishes, taking out the trash, pet care, and making a bed is really damn high in your link.

Cleaning your own room really shouldn't fit into a chore schematic that would earn you an allowance honestly which making the bed is a part of. When things got excessive like with my parents, an allowance should be given. Somehow I was relegated to ALL the yard work while my dad did none of it and even ended up doing the majority of painting and things like that and was never compensated in any way even though I had to sacrifice doing kid things and to this day I resent my parents for that on a long list of reasons(being physically abusive and alcoholics is top of the list) I don't speak to them.

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This is what I base my "assumptions" on.

So apparently you are a parent and your kid(s) are CLEARLY a burden to you. Nobody told you to have a kid. I dont give a shit if it hurts your finances, if its EXPENSIVE and EXHAUSTING. That is YOUR OWN problem that you created for yourself when you decided to become a parent, not mine, not society and least of all not your kids fault.

Deal with it.

It's funny the "I do this I do that" was constantly flung at me growing up and they grounded me several times for telling them it was THEIR choice for having child that they are the ones who need to deal with it, not me.

[Crillam]

I never had allowance. I did some chores from time to time but never got money for it. (Except from my grandparents when I did mow the lawn.
However when I sometimes did ask for something they bought it.

[Sluvs]

It is societies' fault. They need us (citizens) to reproduce, or their civilization will crumble to another nation. It is expensive and exhausting, because good jobs are scarce and the cost of having children as well as supporting them is astronomical.

Then don't have kids? It's not society's fault that you had kids. The way you say it, it looks like your kids are unwanted. Not because you are not giving them allowance, but because they don't seem to have a space in your life.

[Captain N]

I don't pay my kid an allowance per se. She still does her chores as she's supposed to. Since she's a big reader (as in 4-5 books read per week) she's rewarded for her hard work with books. Giving her money is pointless as she already gets everything she needs.

[owbu]

I give my kids an allowance so that they learn how to use/ration money and I make them do chores, because I want them to feel responsible for the place they live in.

I wouldn't connect the too. They are not doing services for me, that I pay them for.

[Crummy]

Giving her money is pointless as she already gets everything she needs.

So learning how to handle her own money, spending it, saving it and earning it is completely pointless? Great advice, thanks dad.

[Enthusiastic Steward]

That's kind of the model I've done with my kid, as there are chores he is expected to do. If he works above and beyond what he's supposed to do in terms of extra chores, we'll throw in a little money. It's part of a larger effort to teach him about money and fiscal management in general. He's already started to put together that he needs to save up to buy things on his own, and that money just doesn't grow on trees and bills need to be paid.

Yeah I thought it was good. I understood there were just things that had to be done, but if I worked hard beyond that I could earn money. Up until I was 14, then I just started working with my dad full time during the summers and some weekends and got a regular paycheck.

Wow, your parents had one monster of a lawn if it took 5 hours.

We lived out in the country on 7 acres. We let some of it grow wild and had some stands of trees and a small pond to take up some of that, but it was still a lot. My dad had his own home remodeling business and he had some outbuildings for all of the tools and equipment and storage. Generally took a bit over an hour to do what would be the front lawn, 90ish min to do the back lawn, an hour and change to do around where we had a firepit/picnic area and also around where my mom had a huge garden and the paths between them, and then another hour maybe to do around all the shop/storage buildings.
It was nice when we had a busy weekend because then I would just do the front and back but my parents still paid me the same

[Captain N]

So learning how to handle her own money, spending it, saving it and earning it is completely pointless? Great advice, thanks dad.

You mean the birthday money, holiday money, and grade money she has sitting in a jar on her dresser?

Do you understand the difference between wants and needs?

[God Save The King]

I think it's a good idea to "pay" your kids for basic work. My grandparents paid me minimum wage for all the unskilled labor I did around the house. I was also really good with math & computers, so I got double that for helping my sister with math and fixing any computer problems.

Then, at the end of each month, my grandpa would sit me down and show me how much I made. As an example, he said I earned $1,000 (using this for easy maths). He then took away $300, saying that would be roughly where taxes would fall (30%). He then grabbed $350, saying most people spend around 35% of their pre-tax income on housing, this was my rent. Then $150 for food. Utilities, clothes, luxury items, movies, gas, etc etc. It came out most months to somewhere around $50-100 that I could use how I wanted. When I got a part time job, the same thing was done. Pay for rent, food, utils, etc. Government handled the tax bit. It was never enough that I owed them anything they'd always float me anything I owed.

I quickly became driven to find work that paid a lot more than minimum wage!

[Lochton]

5 years old, is when we're planning our daughter to be able to earn some.

[Boricha]

I never had an allowance growing up. I generally didn't ask for expensive-ish things unless it was around my birthday or Christmas. I also lived in the middle of nowhere in the countryside, so it's not like I could walk down the street to a store and spend my own money. I don't think it's necessary for kids who grew up in areas like me, but I could see kids in a more urban area having an allowance around the time they start middle school.

I think the parent should teach them basic house chores regardless of an allowance though.