How to stop paying your kids to clean up after themselves, and instead give them incentive to learn something new.
Lots of parents do the allowance thing in there homes, so their kids can earn money. My husband and I also used to be those parents. We would pay our kids allowance bi-weekly for completing their chores in the house.
However, about 4 years ago, we stopped. We begin to notice that our kids, thought that the money was a requirement if they did their chores, and they begin talking about how much we OWED them in allowance, despite the fact that we took them to dinner, movies, and other outings. So, in order to re-balance this thinking, we reminded them that being paid an allowance wasn't mandatory and that we would no longer be paying them to clean up after themselves. (Ultimately, that is what we were doing, and that isn't necessarily how the world works. I certainly don't get paid to clean up messes I make, lol.)
Instead, we implemented a new way for them to earn money at home. We invited them to the opportunity to be paid to write book reports. We pay them $2 for 1 page, $5 for full front and back page papers (they have to be handwritten pages, so they can work on handwriting as well.) and they can earn a bonus $5 if they complete a 5 slide google slides presentation, and present the report to us. We grade the papers for accuracy and mistakes, and if there are any grammatical errors, they lose $.10 cents per error. (Helps to encourage proofreading ;-) ) Also, if we do not feel the paper and presentation were well thought out or rushed than we negotiate deductions in the payment price, or they have the opportunity for one chance at a re-write, or to re-present to us, for the full payment.
In addition to the above, in our house, we have narrowed down the topics in which we are "purchasing" reports on African American History or Angolan History. You can use whatever guidelines for your family or no report guidelines at all. We chose these topics, because kids here in the US, don't learn very much about African American History in school, and we think it is important for our kids to learn more about their historical background. In addition, my husband is from Angola, so we also want them to learn about their Angolan roots.
This change has worked out great for us, because now our kids complete their chores without expecting to be paid to do so, and we have tied their earning power to their efforts to learn about their history on their own.
I hope you find this idea helpful, if you have any questions or decide to do this in your own home, please let me know in the comments below.
Thanks!
