I don’t know what’s up with my internet, but it is super slow today. You’d almost think I was on dial-up.<\/p>\n
Ok, maybe that’s an exaggeration. I don’t think dial-up would even be possible with today’s websites. You’d be waiting for ten years just to load the ads.<\/p>\n
It won’t load any of my pictures to flickr, which is driving me mad. Mad, I tell you! You need to see pictures of my children frolicking in the ocean and squishing each other. How can you live without seeing their darling vacation faces? They are super special snowflakes, gosh darn it. And cute, to boot.<\/p>\n
Here’s the question of the hour.
\nWhat’s the allowance situation in your home? <\/b><\/p>\n
We just started giving Erik an allowance about three months ago. We went with general internet wisdom and did $1\/years old. Since Erik is so impressed with his half year, he gets $6.50\/week. I have to admit it feels like it is kind of a lot, but then I look at the benefits and think it is fine. Erik has told a few of my friends about his allowance and they all have a horrible gasping intake of breath and tell me it is way too much.<\/p>\n
I don’t know. Is it way too much? We can afford it, so that’s not an issue.<\/p>\n
Here is my defense. I need to vent it to you because I am not good at articulating my thoughts in person. Not that I need to defend myself to YOU or anyone else, but I need to mentally defend myself to someone so you, lovely internet friends, are it.<\/p>\n
*I’m not organized with chores. I don’t really have things that I need done on a weekly or daily basis. I need things done when I need them done. Saying “yo, child, do this thing now if you want your allowance” works for me.<\/p>\n
*One mom suggested I pay as we go. I find it difficult to come up with a list and assign a value to each chore, then pay for each chore as it happens. We tried it, it failed. He did not see the value in getting a quarter for bringing in the trash can and would say he didn’t need\/want to do chores because the money wasn’t worth it. He didn’t really get that it all added up.<\/p>\n
*Having enough money to buy something of value rather quickly is very motivating and makes our daily live much easier. If I paid him $2\/week as one friend suggested he would never do his chores. We’d be fighting constantly over it. He wants video games and Beyblades. Saving up for two or three weeks is doable. Saving up for weeks for one thing is not something he has the attention span to handle. I want him to actually DO HIS CHORES. I don’t want to be deducting money and fighting over his allowance. Currently when I say “chore time”, he may complain a little but he does it and usually does it with alacrity.<\/p>\n
*A big part of having an allowance is learning to manage money. Having enough money to manage makes it easier to learn this lesson. <\/p>\n
*I rarely buy him treats, toys and extras. It is so wonderful to be able to tell him “if you want it, buy it” when he starts begging me for a candy bar, ice cream cone, new video game, etc. He often changes his mind very quickly when I make him responsible for the purchase. One of the friends who criticized me the most harshly for his allowance regularly buys her child $50 toys “just because.” Which is totally fine. You want to treat your kid, do it! But don’t go judgey-pants on me because my kid’s “treat” comes in a different form. <\/p>\n
Whew! It felt good to get that out! I am very happy with our current system. It gives Erik a feeling of pride to feel like he is working and getting paid. Thus far I have been able to get him to do just about anything I ask. He regularly does vacuuming, he folds wash clothes, he puts away all his own clothes, brings in the trash can, helps pick up around the house, cleans his room, dusts the floorboards and wainscoting, etc. Just having him doing the floorboards is more than worth it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I don’t know what’s up with my internet, but it is super slow today. You’d almost think I was on dial-up. Ok, maybe that’s an exaggeration. I don’t think dial-up would even be possible with today’s websites. You’d be waiting for ten years just to load the ads. It won’t load any of my pictures […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog2.queenoframbles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog2.queenoframbles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog2.queenoframbles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog2.queenoframbles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog2.queenoframbles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=961"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog2.queenoframbles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":962,"href":"http:\/\/blog2.queenoframbles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/961\/revisions\/962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog2.queenoframbles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog2.queenoframbles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog2.queenoframbles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}