“Teen Sparks Outrage After Demanding Pay for Christmas Cookies: Is It Greed or Just Business?”
Another downside to rewarding kids with money for help around the house is that it can make them focus on materialistic things or make them worry about money.
Image credits: cottonbro studio (not the actual photo)
Balance can be achieved by combining paid and unpaid chores
Achieving balance and combining paid and unpaid chores can give kids the best of both worlds. Bray calls this strategy a two-tier system.
“Tier one would include family chores like cleaning rooms or doing dishes. These would be considered shared responsibilities, not jobs to be paid for,” she explains.
“However, tier two would be the option for paying kids for extra tasks, like deep cleaning the garage or helping with large yard projects, which can teach them valuable lessons about effort and reward. This idea of two levels of tasks allows for kids to work toward the goal of earning money with tier two tasks, but also creates a sense of contribution instead of compensation with tier one tasks.”
Parents might decide not to pay for daily tasks like making their bed, brushing their teeth or setting the table but might want to reward them for chores that are beyond their regular scope, like washing the car or mowing the lawn. This, of course, depends on each family, as everyone’s needs are different.
Some parents might choose not to pay for chores at all. It all depends on what lesson they want to teach their kids. “Some families really want to teach their values of work tied to money, or if you work that earns you money. I think that’s well and good. In our family, I want them to know that being part of the family is the most important thing first,” said JoAnn Crohn, author of the No Guilt Mom blog.
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