ambersand

Wow! I almost hit the delete key because I thought it was yet another BS tip about "reward" for cleaning your own stuff up. The only reward/payment WE get when WE clean OUR house is the freedom to kick back and trash it for the rest of the day.

I try to give our guys money (allowance? but allowance for what?) because I didn't like the lousy feeling it gave me to always have them begging for pennies. It's not much, but they control it, it is theirs and I do not tell them what they can and can not buy. They get the money for the same reason I get money, we are members of this family and this is family money. That is a bit hard for my husband to comprehend. He has to work for the money, but I remind him that kids don't have that option and no one pays him or me to do work about the house. I even hate to use the word work: it is simply those things we do to make our home more pleasing to be in and somewhat sanitary. We don't go to the park or zoo or wherever BECAUSE THEY cleaned the house; we go WHEN WE have it cleaned, or just blow off the whole cleaning thing and throw everything out of sight and go.

ambersand

Stephanie Currier

>>>I try to give our guys money (allowance? but allowance for what?)
because I didn't like the lousy feeling it gave me to always have them
begging for pennies. It's not much, but they control it, it is theirs and I
do not tell them what they can and can not buy. They get the money for the
same reason I get money, we are members of this family and this is family
money. That is a bit hard for my husband to comprehend. He has to work for
the money, but I remind him that kids don't have that option and no one pays
him or me to do work about the house. I even hate to use the word work: it
is simply those things we do to make our home more pleasing to be in and
somewhat sanitary. We don't go to the park or zoo or wherever BECAUSE THEY
cleaned the house; we go WHEN WE have it cleaned, or just blow off the whole
cleaning thing and throw everything out of sight and go.

ambersand>>>

My toddler makes many of the messes in the house, including in my daughters'
room. The girls end up cleaning up many messes they aren't responsible for,
and I often give them money to do so. I often give them special tasks to
earn spending money for candy or marbles or whatever.
They have the option of not doing those things, and often excercize it, but
knowing that it may take me longer to get things done and therefore put off
some of the *fun* things we might want to do. It is the closest thing to how
life on the whole seems to work, for us.

There are also days when we all get the house together, and those days we
work just because it is part of our routine.

We don't divide tasks by who made what mess, because life doesn't seem to
work that way either.
My husband works to make money that often I will spend on our family stuff.
That isn't evenly divided, and neither is the housework. Neither is our
time, turthfully. We work towards a balance....a coordinated effort to keep
certain standards.

I'm thinking that there is often no one better way to do things in regards
to allowance/chores Different seasons and ages and paces of life ask for
different approaches. :)

Steph

[email protected]

In a message dated 4/29/01 5:55:41 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
clownofgod@... writes:

<< I'm thinking that there is often no one better way to do things in regards
to allowance/chores Different seasons and ages and paces of life ask for
different approaches. :)

Steph >>

I liked this whole post. I believe in being fluid in most of life
because that's how we find things that work better for us at any given time.

Lucy