Allowance and Chores

With 4 children chore charts just got too complicated. Some parents are organized enough to do it, but I'm not.

We give our children allowance and it's not conditional. They do chores and they are not linked to allowance. They each have their own chores that they have to do each Saturday morning. Between them they clean the house and I do the rest, or fill in if a child misses their chores for some reason. The commonest amount is $1 for every 2 years of their life. My 11 year old gets $5 and the 15 and 17 year olds get $10 each per week.

Then I have a list of chores that are paid chores, so if a child wants to earn extra money, they can. Some paid chores are not optional, like mowing the lawn, they have to mow the lawn when it needs to be done, but they get paid to do so. I can't have long grass because no child needs to earn money right now.

I think the most important thing with allowance is that you don't give money in advance. If it's Friday and allowance is due Saturday and they want to buy something, then they have to wait. They can only buy something if they actually have the money.

As far as chores goes, each child has an area they are responsible for that is cleaned on Saturday. One child vacuums, another does the bathroom, another the kitchen, etc. Then if half way through the week the floor needs vacuuming I go to the child who is in charge of vacuuming and he has to do that. Chores are not rotated very often.