I’m a parenting coach and you should NEVER pay your kids to do chores – you’re setting yourself up for so many problems
TRYING to get your pre-teens to do chores can be so difficult that you resort to bargaining with money.
But one parenting coach has warned that youngsters should never be financially compensated for contributing to the household.
Lisa Bunnage at BratBusters Parenting asserted that chores and pocket money should always be kept separate.
That’s because parents shouldn’t pay for their children to do things that are essential to the household.
That includes putting their dirty clothes in the laundry basket, keeping their room clean and putting away dishes.
Bunnage said: “Allowances and chores should be kept separate.
“You don’t give allowance for doing chores because you want them to understand that chores are just something that you should do.”
She stressed that kids and teens need to understand that chores are an important part of contributing to the household.
She added: “You live here.
“You’ve got to clean up after yourself and we never pay for that.”
The expert added that she believes “all children deserve” an allowance because it will teach them how to “manage and spend money responsibly”.
Bunnage started her own children on an allowance at three-years-old and used a notebook to keep track of their pocket money usage.
She called the technique Mum’s Bank and would create a graph on the sheet like a real bank.
The expert recommended giving them a weekly allowance of either their age or half of their age.
For example, a ten-year-old would receive £5 or £10 a week and their 14-year-old sibling would receive £7 or £14.
However, Bunnage never gave her children cash pocket money.
She kept it in her own bank account so that her children would have to ask for the money and reflect on what they wanted to purchase, rather than spending impulsively.
After speaking with the children about how their purchase would affect their balance in Mum’s Bank, Bunnage said most of the time they would opt not to spend their money.
She said: “So, I made it every single time they wanted to spend money, we’d discuss it.
“It made it like we’d discuss it, it made it conscious spending instead of just having cash and just blowing their money.
“They started to understand and respect money.”