SD is younger, but we separate chores form responsibilities.

Responsibilities are cleaning your room, picking your toys up out of the living room, clearing your dinner plate, and picking up laundry. Chores are picking up dog poop, vacuuming, washing the car ect. Right now we are on a point system. She gets points for chores, and loses points for not completing responsibilities. We often give an extra point if all responsibilities are done without reminders that week, but we don't regularly reward for responsibilities since they are basic expectations of behavior in our house.

When she get's older, I'm sure we will convert from points to money and responsibilities will grow to include some basic household things like loading the dishwasher or folding her own laundry.

DH and I don't pay the kids an allowance. If they want to earn money (which is usually once a week) I will hand them a list of chores they can do for payment. I've tried so many different chore systems and I've found that this works best in my house. They are expected to pick up after themselves and earn nothing for that. The things I put on their list are always like vacuuming my car, dusting the living room, cleaning tubs and toilets, etc. The kids are 8, 8, and 6. My SS15 will do anything he's told to do without complaint but he doesn't lift a finger unless you tell him. He's not part of my money system but DH will set aside bigger projects for him and pay him for helping.

SD is only 5 and understands that she is expected to pick up after herself in ALL areas she uses. That means she doesn't leave her crap laying around. Shoes go in the closet, coat gets hung up, toys get put away after playing, clothes go into hamper after bath, etc. She leaves virtually no trail after herself and she's used to picking up as she goes

She is also expected to help out - with no money involved - around the house ie. feeding the cats a few nights a week, doing dishes after dinner a few nights a week, bringing all the hampers downstairs (from her room and the bathroom), etc.

When she gets older, she'll get money in exchange for things that are above and beyond picking up after herself or helping the family out. Maybe things like babysitting for date nights and stuff. Cleaning my car. Things that she doesn't have to do and aren't "doing your fair share" of family chores.

I have a chore chart posted on the fridge. My BD12 and BD8 have daily chores to do when they get home from school to be done before I get home. They have chores every Sunday through Thursday, they get Friday and Saturday off unless they get chores as punishment those days.

SS7 has chores on Sunday and Monday as those are the only days he's always at our house. We do not pay for these chores and they range from cleaning their bedrooms, dishes, bathroom, vacuuming, laundry, etc.

I do pay for extra chores that only are done occasionally, but my kids can be pretty lazy and hardly ever take me up on my offer for extra chores to earn money. Sometimes when that happens I'll tell them ok, if you don't want paid for it, do it anyway and I won't pay, ha, that usually changes their mind pretty quick.

I know SS does nothing at his BM's or granny's house when he is with them, and I think all my girls do at their dad's is clean their rooms and occasionally help out when told.

Growing up, my brother and I both received allowance from our parents. It was not a grand sum of money and they would also give us additional funds for special events/activities.

We were expected to do a certain amount of household pitching in. Our own rooms were a given and we also would be asked to help out around the house for small tasks like helping my mom cook, vacuuming or helping her with light outdoor garden stuff. It wasn't necessarily a pay for chores thing.. but we did chores and we got allowance. Allowance was dependent more on our general behavior than anything else I seem to recall. We did chores because we were part of the family unit/community and everyone in a family is expected to "do their job" and contribute. Obviously, kid's primary job is to go to school.. but the other stuff was important too. We did chores for "love".

Then there were higher stakes tasks that were harder or took longer and those could net you extra MONEY. It was funny, but these kind of things seemed to materialize around the times we needed money for some extra purpose.

When asked to do things, we would ask if it was for love (free) or money (paid). lol.

As a kid I helped with virtually every aspect of cleaning inside and outside the home. bathrooms, kitchen, common areas etc...

I think giving responsibility and teaching home skills is part of raising a child. This is the parent's opportunity to teach the child to cook, clean up after themselves and have clean clothes to wear and develop organizational skills.

The SS has chores that he is expected to do such as cleaning his room, take out his bathroom trash, and bringing his dirty clothes down out of his room. There are chores that he can CHOOSE to do in order to get something. We still don't pay him but if he vacuums the whole house he gets to stay up an hour later etc.

But no, in our house generally upkeep of your area is a responsibility not a motivation for payment.

My eldest only earns chore money when it's a contribution to the household as a whole. I don't reward for her bedroom and her personal space.

JustAGirl - you still live... dang thought you died...
}:)

Nope, cleaning your own room and bathroom and shit from the rest of the house - does not get allowance.
Doing dishes after a meal - nope not a part of allowance, this is normal living conditions and life habits and deductions...
just remembered Deigma wanted to have a dog, thus picking up poo daily was not paid... it's your dog clean after him, feed him and make sure fresh water daily.

Allowance in my house included, vacuuming mum's room, doing mum's laundry with yours(not the delicate)working in the garden without being asked to mow the lawn etc, washing and polishing the car inside and out side, opening the post and filing it correctly,

I know my paying chore list is short and small... but it was good pay and the deductions was low, it was just to teach nothing more....

I do not believe that kids should be paid for chores. Neither do I believe that chores should be used as punishment. Chores are what the child does as their contribution to the household (in an age appropriate manner) and chores are for teaching responsibility, time management, and work ethic.

Extraordinary contribution beyond the usual can be used to compensate a child financially. In my youth I was paid $10/cubic yard of dirt that I dug out from under our house. That house was older and had a 3ft crawl space under it. My dad wanted to have it dug deeper for full height storage and his solution was to pay me to dig it out. It took me 2+ years to get 1/4 of it done (age 12-14). I earned several hundred dollars and one very important lesion.... I had no interest in a labor oriented career.

hahaha while we are on the topic - I read this.....

and like normal I scroll down to the comments, parents already saying - this is not a good idea it's dangerous... fine keep your brat away from me

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-4248124/Expert-tricks-stop-rai...