Money Makers
On and off for several years now, I have tried to give my children allowance.
Any of you who have tried to do this may have found the same thing I did.
1) I didn't want to give them money at the end of the week "just cuz".
2) Until recently, they weren't really old enough/tall enough, (you can add the adjective) enough to do much.
3) When I started giving in to their pleads and begs to make money, giving them money for making their beds (when I expect that with or without allowance) seemed silly.
I tried coming up with "Chore Charts".
I then learned that I didn't want to make the time to keep track of all of that nonsense.
On the few feeble attempts where I actually did keep the chart, and they succeeded, I never could remember to get the "one's" to pay them.
I mean really...who has a bunch of ones just laying around in their wallet? Certainly not me.
Then. The other week. The idea came to me....
Normal adult humans go to work and get paid - for the normal things that the boss expects them to do. Carry that over to the children and you get: it's o.k. to pay the children for making their beds and putting away dirty clothes - the normal and expected things).
I mean really, if Bryan went to work and did what was normal and expected and then didn't get paid - we would have a big problem with Mr. Boss Man. And he would probably cut bait and go where someone would pay him for what was normal and expected.
Aren't bonuses for doing things over and above?
So - I devised a new system. In the two weeks I've done it I have loved it! And I think Bryan has too.
It basically goes like this...
I have a chart of the 5 days of the working week ('cause most adult humans get the weekends off too, right? That's where overtime and bonuses can come into play) - but enough about weekends - back to the 5 working days of the week.
Each day has a little pocket (picture coming up) for me to put two paper strips into. Each paper strip represents 50 cents (feel free to make your amount larger or smaller - 50 cents just seemed natural for my family). These paper strips were cut from index cards, have "50 c" and their initials on each.
At any given time, for any given thing that strikes my fancy, I can take away a 50 cent strip. I have taken them away for such infractions as having to tell them too many times to do something (like getting teeth brushed or not getting into bed pronto), not making the bed in the mornings, not putting away dirty clothes, leaving the dishes on the table, etc, etc.
I have found myself saying things like, "If you don't (insert activity) I think I'll need to get 50 cents to pay myself for doing it." etc, etc. And man, my 2nd child is crazy motivated by the dollar. He has had a stellar clean room this week.
They have each had the occasion to lose up to $1.50 so far. I do,however allow them the opportunity for earning the money back, 50 cents at a time, if they do some of those "over and above" things.
So far, both weeks, the children have earned all 5 dollars. I have gone a little easy on earning them back while I try to get them used to this reward system. And while they begin trusting that I really am going to pay them this go around. You should see me scrambling on Friday's to go get the money to pay them.
Now, even though I don't have money slots for the weekends, if they still don't make their beds and put up dirty clothes - I'll take from next week's money.
So far this has really been a helpful process. It encourages them to really do those things that they're supposed to be doing anyway, it motivates them to do more, and they really are getting some cash from me for a job well done.
Here are some pictures of the pouches. They are taped to their doors. I basically took a piece of construction paper, folded it up on itself, used a stapler to staple seams for each day and then cut the strips from index cards.
Below is Julia's. I have pulled up the 2nd strip for each day a bit so that you can see each day has two. Legare's is what they look like all nice and neat and tucked behind one another. And though each day has two - I can pull from tomorrow if you are already out of today's money. Wow does that get them.
