My husband recently took a job to type and design the book for a colleague. He asked our daughter Anja to help him with the typing. And promising her to pay for her part of work made her quite excited about the job. She already made plans how she will spend the money.
Until… she chatted about it with her friends. And to my surprise they were not supporting at all.
“We are having holidays. Holidays are for fun, not work”.
“You are getting only 100 euros! It is not worth the effort.”
“So much work for so little money.”
I was literally shocked. Do the kids today really have everything and get everything without any effort? Is work really so little worth? Is 100 Euros really little money? How about the effort to earn her own money to spend it however she wants?
We give our daughters allowances, but this is no big money, just to give them the sense of it. Actually they have (almost) everything they want and we provide them with everything they need. And they have to put the allowance money into five piggy-banks for different purposes, like rainy days savings, charity, investments and spending. But if they want something really special, they have to earn extra money doing different chores. They do most of simple domestic chores (like making the beds, emptying trash bins…) for free, as their contribution for the family. But something like washing the car or mowing the lawn, we pay them something extra.
And this was an extra job and Anja would earn significantly more than usual. But listening to her friends it was not worth the effort.
How do you manage money with your kids? Do they have to work to earn money? Would love to hear your comments and advices below!
