we all have 'jobs' in our family. my jobs are laundry, cooking and cleaning (in summary), matt's jobs are garbage and yard and the kids are responsible for their rooms, toys and clothes (getting them to the laundry room is their job). we haven't planned on giving an allowance because we don't feel they should be paid for things they should do anyway as responsible people. but the idea of giving them ways to earn money seemed necessary for other life lessons - saving, spending, giving.
i came across a job magnet board on pintrest (really, i don't spend much time on the site, but i do browse while nursing at night from time to time). it had odd jobs and what the parents were willing to pay for them; things like "wipe upstairs baseboards - $0.50. i had shown matt and we had discussed it briefly but not with any great detail or timeline for implementation. madelyn and i were talking about it this weekend because she was saying that she wasn't sure how she could get some money.
she liked the idea. a lot. so much that she has asked about it every day! matt and i did discuss it a little more after i told him about my discussion with madelyn and we decided that the regular 'jobs' had to be done before they could do any paid jobs. but again, didn't discuss what we would pay and what the jobs would be.
today i decided to let madelyn earn some money when she came home talking about what she could do. first she cleaned up all of the toys she had been using. then i offered $0.05 for cleaning up manning's toys (since he can't clean up on his own yet). next was $0.05 for assembling all of the puzzles maddux had dumped all over. still wanting more (well, she wanted to clean the toilets but that had been done recently and didn't need a retouch), i told her that she could clean the windows in the dining room. (she had to wipe down the counters and mirror in her bathroom first after i called matt to see if that was a 'job' for her or something extra.) she got some help from her brothers (although they could not get paid since they had not cleaned up toys first). it took her about 30 minutes, but she cleaned every window of every fingerprint and dried food spot. i was so proud of her and she was pretty proud of herself. for this job she got $0.10. she would have kept going if it hadn't been dinner time.
we will be 'formalizing' this system and posting extra paid jobs for them to choose from very soon.
she was so excited for her $0.20 and said that she might bring some of it to school for a change drive to benefit the children's hospital. she said that she was going to bring one paper and two metal money from her piggy bank. sweet girl. love.
2 comments:
Love this! Especially that they must complete their regular jobs before they can complete tasks for extra. What a great way to enable them to earn money. I also love that they are small amounts and she was super-excited to do it. I'm very curious to see what her interest level is in like a month or two. We're in the same boat on allowance - thinking the kids should have a few things they are consistently responsible for, without pay, because it teaches responsibility and being part of a 'team'
Love this idea. We all have jobs too, although they're a bit young for allowance, it will definitely be implemented in the near future for money management. How sweet of Madelyn to think of the Children's hospital.
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