Saw a crazy story about a 30 year old Princeton grad that killed his parents because his parents limited his weekly allowance to $300. Just crazy.
But growing up I never had allowance, nor did my kids.
Kids are 14, allowance is $20/month for basic chores (take out trash, empty dishwasher, fold towels etc) and I pay them $10/hr if they want to do more (yard work etc).
Saw a crazy story about a 30 year old Princeton grad that killed his parents because his parents limited his weekly allowance to $300. Just crazy.
But growing up I never had allowance, nor did my kids.
We pay our kids based upon performance on their report cards. Being a student is their primary job. Sliding scale with bonus for straight A’s.
Chores- helping with meals/clean-up, yard care, dog care/clean up, etc- are unpaid but expected as a member of the household.
First daughter was $5/week from about age 13 but she is as cheap as her parents and rarely spent any money so eventually I suggested that I’ll just keep a spreadsheet of allowance payments and once she had a bank account, I dumped it into that. She paid zero tuition for college but still worked 10-20 hrs/week as a TA all 4 years so she graduated with ~$15k in savings.
Second daughter didn’t have an allowance so it was basically pay as you go. Probably not more than $5/wk. We gave her $1000 after graduating from high school.
I didn’t get any allowance. Even as a kid, I felt pretty sheepish for asking for it.
I started mowing lawns at 13, and got a job at McD’s at 15.
My son hates reading and is struggling with it (7 years old). He gets $5 every two weeks for doing his nightly reading with me.
Also I hate picking up spruce cones and my tree dumps a shit ton of them. I give him $0.05 for each one he picks up.
Saw a crazy story about a 30 year old Princeton grad that killed his parents because his parents limited his weekly allowance to $300. Just crazy.
But growing up I never had allowance, nor did my kids.
We pay our kids based upon performance on their report cards. Being a student is their primary job. Sliding scale with bonus for straight A’s.
Chores- helping with meals/clean-up, yard care, dog care/clean up, etc- are unpaid but expected as a member of the household.
Man - I remember friends getting paid for good grades. I tried to talk my mom into that once. She laughed at me and told me that the good grades were their own reward - you don’t get paid for doing the thing you are expected to do. 
$3 a week for 11 and 13 y/o’s. Extra for mowing and weed eating lawn.
Saw a crazy story about a 30 year old Princeton grad that killed his parents because his parents limited his weekly allowance to $300. Just crazy.
But growing up I never had allowance, nor did my kids.
We pay our kids based upon performance on their report cards. Being a student is their primary job. Sliding scale with bonus for straight A’s.
Chores- helping with meals/clean-up, yard care, dog care/clean up, etc- are unpaid but expected as a member of the household.
Man - I remember friends getting paid for good grades. I tried to talk my mom into that once. She laughed at me and told me that the good grades were their own reward - you don’t get paid for doing the thing you are expected to do.
Not getting paid for what you are expected to do is why we don’t pay an allowance for chores and work around the house.
I didn’t get an allowance growing up, it was expected to do chores around the house. My kids on the other hand, get $14 a week for basic chores, and can make more if they’re motivated enough.
Saw a crazy story about a 30 year old Princeton grad that killed his parents because his parents limited his weekly allowance to $300. Just crazy.
But growing up I never had allowance, nor did my kids.
We pay our kids based upon performance on their report cards. Being a student is their primary job. Sliding scale with bonus for straight A’s.
Chores- helping with meals/clean-up, yard care, dog care/clean up, etc- are unpaid but expected as a member of the household.
Do you find that helps? I have one son who is really bright but puts forth zero effort and his grades show it. Starts high school next year and I’d really like him to get off to a good start. We’ve talked about doing this but are hesitant. Any downsides you’ve seen?
Saw a crazy story about a 30 year old Princeton grad that killed his parents because his parents limited his weekly allowance to $300. Just crazy.
But growing up I never had allowance, nor did my kids.
We pay our kids based upon performance on their report cards. Being a student is their primary job. Sliding scale with bonus for straight A’s.
Chores- helping with meals/clean-up, yard care, dog care/clean up, etc- are unpaid but expected as a member of the household.
Man - I remember friends getting paid for good grades. I tried to talk my mom into that once. She laughed at me and told me that the good grades were their own reward - you don’t get paid for doing the thing you are expected to do.
Not getting paid for what you are expected to do is why we don’t pay an allowance for chores and work around the house.
Out of curiosity, what would you do if your kid tried their hardest, but school wasn’t that easy for them and getting a B was a major accomplishment. Would you still do a sliding scale for the $$$?
Saw a crazy story about a 30 year old Princeton grad that killed his parents because his parents limited his weekly allowance to $300. Just crazy.
But growing up I never had allowance, nor did my kids.
We pay our kids based upon performance on their report cards. Being a student is their primary job. Sliding scale with bonus for straight A’s.
Chores- helping with meals/clean-up, yard care, dog care/clean up, etc- are unpaid but expected as a member of the household.
Do you find that helps? I have one son who is really bright but puts forth zero effort and his grades show it. Starts high school next year and I’d really like him to get off to a good start. We’ve talked about doing this but are hesitant. Any downsides you’ve seen?
Hi Greg. Hope all is well, been a long time since we met in Oceanside 70.3. Semper Fi.
Both my kids are pretty good students… stand by for proud Dad bragging, apologies in advance. My daughter graduated in the top 1% (6th out of 700ish) a couple of years ago. My son is rising Junior is is right now 5th in his similar sized class. He had a bit of a motivation problem in middle school… but always did enough to squeak out an A. (like I said there is a bonus for all A’s). That motivation problem (procrastinating, half ass work) that seemed to be fixed before high school.
Both are now self motivated and dedicated students. We never nagged them or helped manage their school work or time. We made it clear to them that they owned their work and effort and we were able to assist as needed. We did review grades online and they would let us know if they had a bad day before we asked, so there was some feeling of accountability to us. While they owned it, we were engaged and assisted when they asked- Calculus was fun with my daughter.
But did paying for good grades help? Elementary school… doubtful. Maybe in middle school for my son to push a little harder for an A. Largely irrelevant in High School as they were/are self motivated and focused on colleges and scholarships.
Kid is 10 and gets $5 week for doing his basic expected chores. He has ways to earn extra including via good grades.
Mostly we’re trying to teach him to save and budget for things that he wants instead of assume mom and dad will make his wishes magically appear through the power of our adult bank accounts.
zero…
. she gets spending cash if she goes out with friends and can just ask on need basis.
I think I got $.10 a week for each year of how old I was. So when I was 10, I got $1 a week. I vaguely remember it only happening for a few years. But I was also expected to keep my room clean and do chores as a precondition.
0$ None for grades either. We’d take her out to dinner for all A’s on report card. She was always horrible with chores, pay or no pay. Money did not motivate her. She is going to University of Michigan now so we did ok so far.
Saw a crazy story about a 30 year old Princeton grad that killed his parents because his parents limited his weekly allowance to $300. Just crazy.
But growing up I never had allowance, nor did my kids.
We pay our kids based upon performance on their report cards. Being a student is their primary job. Sliding scale with bonus for straight A’s.
Chores- helping with meals/clean-up, yard care, dog care/clean up, etc- are unpaid but expected as a member of the household.
Man - I remember friends getting paid for good grades. I tried to talk my mom into that once. She laughed at me and told me that the good grades were their own reward - you don’t get paid for doing the thing you are expected to do.
Not getting paid for what you are expected to do is why we don’t pay an allowance for chores and work around the house.
Pretty much any job you have is paying you for what you’re expected to do so I’m not seeing how this makes sense. No one comes home from work and goes whelp it was a good day I did exactly what I was supposed to do so I didn’t get paid.
I didn’t really get an allowance I just got money when I needed it, or when my dad was being my dad. I was working two jobs in high school, playing hockey, and doing decent in school my dad wasn’t really concerned about giving me too much.
My daughter gets $2 a week if she asks me on the weekend for that week. She is 9
This was largely in response to the research that females don’t negotiate well. As well as trying to teach her to speak up for herself and some personal responsibility.
It has not worked great for that- but I’m only out about $14 a year. She’s starting to catch on though. I would up it if she tried to negotiate.
She’s a good kid- good grades, feeds the dogs etc. Needs to learn to speak up for herself though.
Saw a crazy story about a 30 year old Princeton grad that killed his parents because his parents limited his weekly allowance to $300. Just crazy.
But growing up I never had allowance, nor did my kids.
We pay our kids based upon performance on their report cards. Being a student is their primary job. Sliding scale with bonus for straight A’s.
Chores- helping with meals/clean-up, yard care, dog care/clean up, etc- are unpaid but expected as a member of the household.
Do you find that helps? I have one son who is really bright but puts forth zero effort and his grades show it. Starts high school next year and I’d really like him to get off to a good start. We’ve talked about doing this but are hesitant. Any downsides you’ve seen?
We moved from Colorado to Iowa at the end of 8th grade. I was a pretty miserable student in middle school I just didn’t care. However, when my dad found out we were moving there, he saw you could get a driving permit at 14 so he told me if I wanted a driving permit I needed to at least get on honor roll. After he told me that I don’t think I missed a semester of honor roll in middle or high school. I was still was a shitty student but at least I tried harder.
I would say find something that is motivating to them, whatever it is. And use access to that as a motivator. Trust me fighting your way back up from not doing well is a much bigger battle compared to the effort to just do well in the first place. You’re the parent, taking something away may be the best option, even if it really sucks for them.
That said, figure out why they’re putting zero effort in. It may be as simple as they don’t know how to put effort into school, or the effort they do put in doesn’t show any change so they don’t care. School doesn’t teach you how to learn they just teach you. He may just not know how to learn.