The Money Chart

My children have been interested in doing things for money.   I’ve been interested in building good helping habits so I came up with a plan: I would pay my children for doing things.  

Some of the things they were already doing, like getting dressed before breakfast.   I put a low value on this at five cents.   The new rule though was they had to come downstairs dressed first and not have to be told to get dressed.   They were getting themselves dressed before, but sometimes they had to be reminded no breakfast would be available until they went back upstairs and got dressed.

Some of the items they should be doing but we haven’t pressed it such as putting their dishes in the dishwasher and their cloth in the dirty cloth bucket.    For that, they get another nickel.   Waiting patiently to have us acknowledge they want to speak to us is worth a penny—which is WAY underpriced because I would pay a lot more than a penny to not hear mommy repeated again and again.

Some things they won’t be able to be successful on easily, such as folding and putting away an entire load of laundry for a dollar.   This, again, is a very cheap price given the amount of time it takes me to do an entire load, but if they help and learn in the process and get excited about a dollar, I’m all for it.

They were excited today about doing things to get money for their coin cups.    My son already has twenty-three things he wants to buy with his money.  My daughter hasn’t decided what she wants yet.

The Big Boy Update:  I mentioned Uncle Bob and Uncle Brian would be visiting us in a few months. My son and daughter talked about that for a bit in the back seat while we drove along.   Then my son said to his sister, “I like the one with the ‘rrr’ in his name”.   (They’ve been working on sounds.)  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter came downstairs into our room this morning in her pajamas. I said, “good morning, how are you?” to her to which she replied, “no nickel”.   It took me a minute to realize she decided to come down before getting dressed and didn’t really care about the nickel.   She said she would come down dressed tomorrow morning.   She’s the one who usually gets dressed without being asked.