What chores do you pay your kids to do or reward them in some way?

To be honest, I’m not a huge fan of paying your children to do stuff.

Some people pay their kids to do chores around the house, or even to play with their younger siblings.

The idea behind that is to get your child motivated to do whatever it is you want them to do, and to help them understand the concept and value of money.

However, I believe that it actually creates a distortion in the child’s mind.

First, this will create an expectancy on the child’s part that anything they do that isn’t completely for their enjoyment, they should be paid to do.

And that’s not just true for any chore or anything they might not want to do (like going over to relatives for a holiday).

That’s true for life as well- that child, in my opinion, would be much less inclined to take part in any form of charity, because they should be paid for anything they don’t like doing.

In addition, it will not teach them the value of money because when you get paid for something it’s very novel and rewarding at first.

But very quickly you get used to it and take it for granted.

A child that suddenly finds themselves with $20 in their hand with no financial obligations will not understand the value of money from this – quite the contrary this will set them up for being very careless with their money (they’ll get used to spend it all because they can and they know that more is coming).

And anyway, there are ways that are far more educational and ethical to teach your child the value of money – and here’s just one example.

Give your child a weekly allowance of, say, $5. Tell them that for any amount they don’t spend, they will earn a 5% weekly interest. Obviously that’s way more than they’ll get right now in real life, but it will teach them the value of saving.

But anyway I think you should never, ever pay your child to do something.

Hope that helps.

Jon

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