All About Allowances

Children should get a reasonable amount of allowance starting about age 5. They should be required to save 50% of the money. They should be allowed to spend a portion after that and donate a very small portion to charity.

When they have spent all of their money, they shouldn't be allowed to borry any more or have mom or dad buy them what they want. This teaches them that they are responsible for their money, their decisions and their wants and desires.

In order for this to work, mom & dad cannot be purchasing everything the child wants. Mom and Dad should save purchases for Birthdays, Christmas (or other religious holiday), back to school shopping & special occasions. The occasional fun purchase from mom and/or dad is fine too. If you buy everything your child wants, when they want it, the allowance does no good.

You need clear guidelines as to what your child is responsible for paying for. Ideally you shouldnt expect your child to pay for necessities like school lunch, necessary clothes and any other expenses that you would expect a parent to have to pay for.

Your child should be expected to pay for: cell phone calls & text messages to friends, fun stuff for school (within reason), dances, fashion clothes that they desire, games, dates, etc...

This list is negotiable, but parents should decide on a budget for what the parent expects to pay for and what is expected for the child to pay. If a parent feels that they should pay for 1 sport a term, or they agree to pay for 5 dances out of the year, or they parent pays for the cell phone because it's on a plan where they child cannot exceed the basic charges, then that's OK.

What you are trying to avoid is purchasing everything your child desires and giving them money to squander. I hate to use the term squander, but it's a very important lesson for children to learn that money doesn't go on trees.

If your child has an allowance and they have to make choices about what to buy and what to pass up because they want something else more, it teaches them about how life is going to be when they are working and paying for their own expenses.

The decision making process is very important for children to learn.

It's also very handy for it not to be mom & dad's fault and it relieves mom & dad from always having to say no.

No I can't/won't buy that for you today Versus It's too bad you didn't save any of your allowance money, you'll have to wait until next week/month and purchase it later. It sure lets Mom & Dad off the hook.