Paying for Household Chores?

Mums Tips

Parenting Skills

Published on Sunday, 25 November 2018 11:05

Last Updated on 22 November 2018

Lynda

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You want your child to grow up understanding the value of money. You yearn for them to understand you get paid if you work hard. But you also want them to understand that families need to work together and to help out when needed. So how do you decide if you should pay your child for household chores or not?

Depending on what goals you have set for yourself as a parent, meaning what are the major traits you want to establish in your children, your answer might be different than mine or your next door neighbor.

Do you think your child should get paid for doing the dishes, cleaning a toilet or taking out the trash?
Is it a good idea to let your child think they should get paid for the everyday things that need to be done?

Parenting is always a struggle of trying to find the balance between wanting to take care of every little detail for our children and teaching them to take care of themselves, and it is a very tenuous scale by which we must measure this balance.

Everyone will have a different opinion of what this scale would be, therefore, you have to determine:

• when you should pay your child (for chores or just allowance or not at all)
• what your child needs to accomplish to get paid
• and why you have made this decision, as you should always be able to explain your reasons.

Lastly, you need to decide: should you take into account the country you live in, what your child’s friends’ families are doing, and what kind of character your child is?

Or do you just make the decision based on your own beliefs of:

A) you get paid for any and all work that is done no matter if it is housework or yard work, or helping you with your work
or
B) you decide that your child(ren) don’t get paid for household work, yard work and only get paid for work outside the home.

Watch this video and see what we did and our reasons why and see if you agree with our decision. If you do not, and you can understand why you don’t agree, then you will be making a correct decision for you and your family.  Please let us know your decision and why so we can all learn from each other.