BellaOnline Forums Family Work & Family Should Children Get an Allowance?

I agree 100%, thank's for sharing Quality.

I was never taught the value of money as a child. I was never taught how precious it is in order to live and have always taken it for granted. Because of this, my credit is shot even to the point that when I apply for credit somewhere, a siren goes off when my info is fed into the computers and security escorts me off of the property. lol.

I blew the opportunity to teach my two older children the value of money because I never knew the value. My two younger children will be different. They are nine and ten and I will be giving them an allowance probably starting this new year when they are a year older. I will tell them that they should give ten percent for a tithe but will let them make that decision on their own. They do enjoy going to church so that won't be a problem. Like everyone else here, I will also tell them to put a portion of it away and they can spend the rest on what they want.

I will also sit down with them when I get my paychecks for a month and show them how much I bring home and explain to them all of the bills that need to be paid and how much of each paycheck I apply to the monthly bills and then show them how little I have left and explain what can happen if a bill doesnt get paid and how much more it will cost the next month or how much it will cost to get the lights turned back on.

I wish someone did that with me when I was younger.

When I was young we did chores and earned an allowance. I don't give an allowance to my kids...I started and stopped a couple of times, but then I would always forget and they wouldn't ask for it.
To me, it's about teaching them the value of a dollar. I know when my daughter got her first job, all of a sudden she started looking at the prices of things she wanted and wasn't so quick just to pick something up and throw it in the cart, so to speak.
Vannie, I totally chuckled at your bank scenario because my kids used to be the exact same way. Just hand the teller the colorful card and they give me money in return. "What you mean you have to put money IN the bank first?"
They save the money that they get for birhdays and stuff and use it when we go on vacation. I always tell them, whatever they manage to save, I will match. They've saved as much as $200 for one vacation...imagine my pain when I had to match it....lol...then when we got on vacation all of a sudden they became the most frugal shoppers you ever wanted to see because they were spending THEIR money. A whole different concept from the endless bank card.

Growing up, we were too poor to get an allowance and I used to hate that. I think out of my entire HS experience, I remember getting maybe $200 in total.

Our kids on the other hand are blessed to be in an upper middle class family and allowances are given but so are monthly lectures (about 5 min) about how to save, what frugal means and things of that nature. Since I didn't get an allowance, I, too, as Vance, didn't know how to handle money and when I got my first job, huh, forget the bills, it was all about me, making me look good. (Thank God for subdueing my vanity button as I've aged).

Anyway, it caused me too, to mess up my credit and not learn the value of money. So, yes I think kidz should get an allowance AND be taught about money.

Whenever, we head out shopping, hubbie and I purchase their necessities but anything outside of that, they have to foot the bill and believe it or not, it actually has made them more conscientous of spending habits. It seems so easy to say, "mommie buy me that" and see me swipe the card and give them the purchase but hey....when they have to divvy up the money out of their lil' wallets, according to my lil' son (he's 10), even a packet of gum, he reaches for the cheaper one.