Parents Talk: Allowances and Household Chores

I’ll admit it. In my family, we’re basically socialists when it comes to household work, chores and compensation.

I’m sure my kids would say it’s a tyranny, though.

Here’s our simple philosophy: Everybody has to work for the good of the household, whether or not they are paid for it and according to what they can do.

It wasn't always like this.

When the kids were younger, we used point charts for the kids to earn money and for us to encourage good behavior and chore completion. We stopped doing this for a couple of reasons: It was a hassle to keep up; the kids would argue about its fairness and, ultimately, paying the kids for work just seemed wrong when oftentimes it was their own messes they were cleaning up!

Here’s the complicated system we’ve developed over the years – everyone is expected to do work in the house when their parents ask them or when it needs it.  Period.

If there is a big project, like cleaning out the garage, we do generally pay them for their work – if they do a good job and earn it.

Once in a while, though, we revisit this issue, mainly driven by the fact that kids do seem to need some regular income to build money management skills and to pay for things that we parents don’t want to pay for.

I also would like to encourage more regular housework, without nagging or reminding.

Whatever we do has to be easy to organize, require little maintenance and withstand the lawyer-like scrutiny of my kids.

Any suggestions?