Children, Chores, and Allowance

Was a child, had lots of chores, never had an allowance.

None of the other spoiled people have come around, so I guess I’ll break the ice.

No chores, although I did keep my room clean because I like it that way. No allowance either, but the ol’ ‘Mom, can I have some candy?’ or ‘Dad, can I have some movie money?’ worked. I would try to do something like vacuum and Mom would say I’m doing it wrong and just do it over again, so I got discouraged.

Got a job pretty young for a teen though, I think my boss never actually looked too closely because I mentioned getting my learner’s permit and she was shocked and told me not to tell anyone I was that young.

This has come back to bite me in the ass and I wish I had more responsibilities when I was younger.

Chores: Hell yeah!

Age: Light stuff started around 7 or 8; the weekly chore list probably came into play around 9 or 10.

Kind: Started with helping fold clothes, light ironing (pillowcases and napkins). Eventually my list included washing, drying and putting dishes away every night and vaccuming, dusting, cleaning my bathroom and bedroom every Saturday. My brother had a separate set of chores-we never switched or took turns with tasks, but eventually he took over putting the dishes away.

Allowance: $20/week. I believe my brother received $10/week because he was younger and had a lighter chore list. (I believe as he got older his allowance increased to $20 too because his chores increased.)

If my brother or I decided we wanted more money any given week, then we could ask for extra chores and my mom and dad would decide how much each additional chore was worth. This rarely happened, however, because we both felt like we were already worked to the bone!!! Looking back though, I can see that what were were given was probably just about right.

Class: Probably middle to slightly upper middle, although I never asked my dad how much he made and he never told us.

Yes! I so want one of those! We had one when I was growing up, but it’s long gone now. Of course, then I’d need the pop bottle.