I hate stories that begin this way..."when I was a kid, I used to..." But in this case, it's what I'm doing to prove a point.
Does your child do chores around the house? I have to really coerce my kid to do his chores and it makes me wonder if teenagers really want to make money by actually working these days. My son loads and unloads the dishwasher and takes out the garbage...that's it. And for this overwhelming work, I pay him $10/week. It takes him about 35 minutes a week to do these chores, so I don't think he's doing too badly. And now the kid wants A RAISE!!! I've tried telling him that he's making way more than minimum wage, but it doesn't faze him.
Now comes that line...when I was a kid, I used to mow our lawn, do the garbage, help with the dishes (and we did not have a dishwasher!), shovel the driveway during the winter, and help my Mom around the house. All for $2 a week. Plus, I'd mow other neighborhood lawns for the sum of $4 per lawn, no matter how large it was. Man, have times changed or what??!! OK, inflation has played a role. But I still worked pretty hard for my money.
I also used to mow my gramma's lawn, with a push mower that didn't even have a motor. I think she bought it in 1939 or something. Anyway, it was totally rusted out and was a PAIN to use. But I mowed her lawn for FREE because she was my Gram... and she would bake me chocolate chip cookies! BTW...the picture I've posted looks like my gramma's mower, without the rust.
I offered the use of our lawnmower to my son and said I'd even pay for the gas if he wanted to mow some lawns around the neighborhood. Nice chance to make some extra money, right? No way! He's not interested. I think I know why...he makes more from ME!
The raise negotiations with my son are ongoing...kids these days!
Will Johnson
[photo by Dan4th/flickr.com]
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silvrsliprs - now see there's your mistake - you give them money for work. My kids do tons of chores, 2-3 solid hours of work every day. I tell them it takes a lot of work to keep a household running and if they want to eat, have clean clothes to wear and a bed to sleep in they better suck it up and get the work done. It takes every member of the household working at full force to keep the wheels running. They don't get money for work. Ever. They get food, clothes, shelter and because they are contributing members of the household workforce they have a share of the family money. All the work is all of our responsibility, all of the money is our result. If your son is lazy and won't work, don't give him more money. Don't give him a dime. Nothing. Cut him off until he is pulling his weight. If he won't earn is keep, keep the money for yourself. He is lucky to have food, clothing and shelter. Any thing extra he has to earn. After he starts pulling his weight, you pay for what he wants. There's no reason on earth for a child to be in possession of money. Money is the provenance of adults. Adults provide for children, children earn their keep by being fully functioning members of the household at age-appropriate levels. My kids started doing "chores" as soon as they could walk. We all work together, get it done and go have fun - and we do that together, too.