Q: Is it a good idea to pay your kids to do their chores?

Sometimes, children need a little extra motivation to complete their chores. I always find that when I ask my daughters to clean up, they really won’t budge until I mention there’s money involved. That being said, I think that paying your children for chores is a fine idea.
 
Some parents think this is a form of bribery, but to me, I think it’s the very beginning of learning how to earn money in exchange for doing work. My daughters both take extreme pride in going that extra mile when they clean up if there is money involved.
 
My daughters are still fairly young, but as they age, I plan to have them complete a set list of chores each week which I’ll assign a monetary value. When they complete their chores, they will receive money only for the tasks they properly took care of.
 
Chores help teach your children responsibility
So does earning money. Put them together and you have a huge lesson for them to learn that will discourage entitlement. Too many parents today don’t teach their children these things and the result is a bunch of children who don’t want to contribute to the family and who look to their parents to do everything for them.
 
In my generation, chores were the norm and we were expected to do them or we didn’t get our allowances. I remember I was as gleeful as my daughters were when I earned my allowance. And incidentally, the amount you give them doesn’t need to be enormous. My daughters are happy with coins. They get all excited about putting them into their piggy banks.

Keep this in mind
There are some things you should keep in mind when it comes to chores for money. One of them is that the chores should be age-appropriate. Small children can even do chores like put their dirty laundry in the hamper or pick up their toys and put them away. Whatever tasks you assign, be sure your child is capable of completing them.
 
Teach the value of money too
Another thing to keep in mind is that money does no good if it is earned and not put to use. Your child needs to learn about the value of money in a simple way. So at the end of a month for example, allow your child to take out a little bit of the money she’s earned and spend it on something she wants. Set a limit, which will depend what is in their piggy bank, then let them choose something that they can afford with the designated amount. It could be ice cream or a new toy, but your child should be able to choose it.
 
But that’s not all. We can’t just teach them to fritter away money, so show them how to save it up in the bank. Roll up the coins and go with your child to open a savings account at the bank. In this way, your child will learn about saving hard-earned money so they will have a balance between earning money, spending money, and saving money, all of which they will learn from being hard workers, which is exactly why they need chores.