To Pay or Not to Pay.....Chore Charts Revisited

**WARNING** LONG POST ABOUT THIS FAMILY'S JOURNEY WITH CHORE CHARTS.....DETAILS INCLUDED.

It has taken years to settle on the perfect system for our kids and the division of household labor we like to call "chores". I am happy to report that our chore charts are still working wonders for us. Only now they are cuter because I painted them to match our kitchen. Those charts ensure that my kids don't get too lazy or think they have life too easy.

One thing that Kelly and I have always struggled with was whether or not we should PAY our kids to do their chores. I can see both sides of the argument and until now I have upheld the idea that "We all work because that's just part of being in a family." (I mean, no one pays me to do the laundry or cook dinner!)

But recently we have felt the need to teach our kids financial responsibility and so we finally decided to try it out the other way. After an initial family meeting to decide which chores they would do, how often they would do them, and how much they would get paid, this is what we came up with....

We are still using those chore charts (I know better than to mess with a good thing). Every morning I make sure that I put all of their chores for that day on the "To Do" side. They don't do every chore every day. For example, they only put their clothes away 2-3 times a week (whenever I do laundry) and even the dishwasher doesn't need to be emptied every day. They are responsible for moving their chore over to the "Done" side when they complete it. If they don't remember to move it, they don't get paid for it. Needless to say, they rarely forget to move a chore over. :) Each chore is worth 25 cents.

After they go to bed each night I mark off the chores they completed that day on our spreadsheet....and then get their chore charts ready for the next day.

After a week or two, we found it necessary to make a few modifications. We decided that Prayer and Service are not chores that you should be paid for. (It's kind of hard to judge whether a child's personal prayer qualifies as sincere. And we all agreed that you should do service for the feeling you get and not because you're going to get paid for doing it.) The kids are still expected to say their prayers every day and we encourage them to perform one act of service each day so we still left them on their charts to help them remember to do those things.

Another thing we added was a *star* if they completed ALL their chores that day. This earns them a bonus of 25 cents. It took them a few weeks to catch on to that idea but when they realized how much extra they can earn, it really gave them that extra push to get all their chores done (and I personally love it when they do them all).

And conversely we also decided there are a couple of ways that you can lose money, too. For now, slamming doors, leaving your dirty socks lying around, and especially bad behavior can earn you a deduction.

We decided to have Payday once a month (every 4 weeks). The first month we paid out over $60. Last month it was over $80! See, it's catching on. That may seem like a lot of money but I think it is totally worth it to help my kids learn to be responsible for their money. And it's really not that much. Last month, Kyler earned $6.50 the 1st week, $7.75 the 2nd week, $9.50 the 3rd week (see how those bonuses add up!), and $10.50 the 4th week.

When we give out their "paychecks" we talk to each child individually. We show them how much they earned, bonuses they earned, deductions that were made, etc. and talk to them about how great they did, how they can improve, which chore they need to work harder at, etc. Then they divide their money into the appropriate "jar":

10% goes to tithing

20% goes to spending (this is money they can spend on anything they want)

20% goes to mission/school fund

50% goes to savings (This money is put into a Family Bank that Mom/Dad keep. In order to spend this money, purchases must be approved by a parent. We are hoping to show them that by saving this money, they will have enough money to be able to make larger purchases.)

We've been using this system for 10+ weeks now and we seem to have all the kinks worked out. I know that what works for one family will not necessarily work for another but I hope someone can take something and use it. All I know is that I'm happy because the kids are doing their chores and learning about money and the kids are happy because they have some CASH!