ALLOWANCES - Good or Bad? OR How do you encourage your kids to make $$$?

We will help, BUT I am a believer in working for what you want.
I see far too many that end up in school as a career because they didn't have to work... then they get out of school and still don't know how to work.

My daughter started college at 16, graduated with a bachelors at 19, married and got a job. She went on to earn two masters degrees by 23 and has been a college professor for 7 years. She is now working on her doctorate and will have it by age 34. We worked our tails off to get her through college. We took out a loan that took 10 years to pay back. The masters degrees, she got loans for and starting in the summer, the college she works for will pick up the tab for her doctorate.

My son went to work on the docks in Galveston, loading freight bound for the offshore oil rigs. He worked for a half-a$$ed outfit that barely skimmed by the laws, rules and regulations. He ran equipment, cranes and was paid for a laborer's pay. He learned all he could, stayed for several years, then got laid off. He went to work in a welding shop for several more years, but really wanted to run cranes. He finally got on with a contractor working in a Dow chemical plant who put him through crane training and school. He is now licensed for operating 7 different types of cranes and loves what he does. He is currently working in Iowa, outside of Sioux City. He said he will stay until the first snowfall next winter, then he is quitting and coming HOME! He refuses to spend another winter in Iowa.

Two children. Both are smart. Both are motivated. Both found their passion and pursued it. One cost a boat load of money to get to where she wanted to go. One went his own way, worked his way up and is making money hand over fist. Both are happy with their jobs. Did we owe them help? I believe so. Neither of them acted "entitled" or like we "owed" them anything. We are a family. We help each other. That's what families do. Someday, we may need their help. My daughter has already told me that she expects to care for me in my old age. My Mother cared for her Mother, I cared for my Mother.

Allowances for kids? Yes. But not as a hand out for hanging out, eating and doing nothing. Responsibilities must be met, chores must be done, good grades (or as good as a child can make-not every child is a straight A student) and well behaved, then that allowance will be given.

I grew up on a small farm with 4 brothers. My mother was a stay at home mom and my father went and worked at my grandfathers insurance business and after work he did all the farm chores. Even though I grew up on a farm I would not say I had to do a lot of "farm work". I do remember having to collect eggs. My brothers did help with fencing and such but we didn't have to much to do with the cows. Probably because my father knew how dangerous beef cattle can be sometimes. We were not given allowance or any money for small jobs. There was just not that much to go around.

My parents are an interesting dynamic. My father worked all his life and he didn't want us to get jobs in high school and wanted us to enjoy being young. He would always say, "You have your whole life to work". My mother was not allowed to work growing up and her parents paid for her school and she was the parent who supported us working. That all being said, I have worked since I was fifteen and enjoy working to make my money.

I think that an important part is just the example you set. I saw my parents work hard and that taught me to work hard. They have helped me in anyway they could with schooling and I know when I get older I fully plan on paying them back the support they showed me.

Not saying yes or no, these are just my thoughts on it as a kid who didn't get allowance growing up. I do agree with many of the responses that if it is to be given that it should be earned.

@Baymule---I wish more adults would tell students that they don't have to go college to find success and happiness and that there are other roads to it. When I went to high school all they preached from the first day we stepped foot in the building was, what do you wanna do in college. They didn't really show us their were other options than going to a university. After 4 years of school I don't know if I would have gone had someone shown me there were other options(like trade schools). I ended up going to school for merchandise, textile, and fashion design. Everyone I knew would say how they wish they had a fun major like mine. It was not an easy major. I pulled many all nighters working on school work. But I was introduced to working with different textiles and dyes and learned to weave and it lead me to pursue a saddle making school. So I wonder if I never went to college would I end up still finding what I loved.
And those winters in Iowa are bad! I know Nebraska is right next to it but some how it is much colder there during the winters.

I work in a vocation hat was originally a matter/apprentice skill. 30 years ago, when I started, there was still an apprentice program. Six years of apprenticeship before graduating, although no drunken celebration with a nail through the east for your master ear ring ( I did, however get my ear pierced on my own).

Today, there really is no apprenticeship, people are just promoted to the job, but never really learn the little skills that go in to it. They are taught to rely on technology. No one wants the stigma of being an apprentice. It seems everyone wants everything now. The craftsmanship is lacking.

I had previously attended college, left just a semester short of graduating. I realized it wasn't what I wanted. What I've been doing now isn't really what I want, either, but it pays the bills, more or less.

My advice to young people is to find their passion, whatever it may be. They may have to make sacrifices and do without some things. They may have to do some things they don't enjoy to keep money flowing, but never to lose sight of their passion, whatever it may be. In the end, being involved in what they are passionate about will lead to success.

I wish when I was young, someone had guided me to what my passion was rather than "you really do well in this, so you should become a that". I've learned after many years, that wasn't truly my passion. Tell them don't be afraid to take risks, don't be afraid to change direction.

Sorry, kind of of topic.

Rachel has said she would like to "be" a couple of things when she grows up, but the thing she says the most consistently is she wants to be a chef.
There are two community colleges nearby that offer AAS degrees in Culinary Arts.
I guess since I have been saving for a 4 year degree if she goes this route, maybe after she gets some experience I can help her open her own restaurant one day.

When I was growing up we were never given an allowance, nor were we given any money from the work we did for others....we were sort of farmed out to pick berries and such for neighbors. When old enough to get summer jobs we had to use all that money for our own school clothes and never had any left over for anything else. We also were not encouraged to grow anything~be it animal or crops~for selling to make money. I think all of that was a wrong move.

The farm kids I knew that got money from work done on the farm were those that managed money the best, grew up to make more money and managed that well also. They were encouraged to take animals to the fair and made money on those animals, which they invested right back into other animals they could sell for a profit later on. Many of those kids now own their own farms and continue to make better money than their peers.

I think you are on the right track in letting them share in the fruits of their labors and I also like the post where the kids were allowed to choose what they would raise for making money and also were expected to learn about it, take a huge hand in growing it and also marketing it. I would have loved to have that opportunity when I was growing up...I think it fosters responsibility, good habits towards work, saving money, confidence in dealing with others, etc.

It also seems to sort the wheat from the chaff....if given the opportunity to raise farm things for money when I was growing up, I would have done so and my lazier sibs probably would not have done so. Or maybe the chance to make money would have spurred them into be more work brickle, who knows?

One of the things I've been told is that sports are a good thing but they are only needed to keep us fit. I'm in 4H and Girl Scouts and going to raise a market animal. I'm hoping that can get me ahead in the future. Although I only have chickens this year, I'm hoping in the future to raise Turkeys. If they are 4Hers, think about having the kids raise a market animal. The food cost can be a bit and so can the animal but that is earned back at auction.

Poka_Doodle said:

One of the things I've been told is that sports are a good thing but they are only needed to keep us fit. I'm in 4H and Girl Scouts and going to raise a market animal. I'm hoping that can get me ahead in the future. Although I only have chickens this year, I'm hoping in the future to raise Turkeys. If they are 4Hers, think about having the kids raise a market animal. The food cost can be a bit and so can the animal but that is earned back at auction.

Click to expand...

Yes sports are good, but not an end in themselves. Exercise in any form is good, be it organized sports, walking, swimming, or the chores farm kids do. Organized sports, done correctly, can lead to teaching teamwork, social skills, etc. Done incorrectly, it can lead to, what I consider, a distorted view of success, winning as the only important thing. Balance is needed, particularly at younger ages. I didn't participate in a lot of competitive sports growing up, but I road my bike everywhere, 20, 30 miles was nothing to me. That's exercise on a bike with two speeds, go and stop.

Old thread but I figure I'll throw in my two bits.

Every fall Mom would take all of us kids to a bean farmer in the neighborhood. We got something like $2 a bucket. Over the years that has gone up to $4. There are 9 of us kids and some picked faster than others. I almost always came in second when we raced to fill a bucket. Anyway, it was maybe 4 or 5 days that we did beans in the morning and school in the afternoon each year. When I was 10 my uncle offered to take me to help shear at the alpaca farm he worked at. I went and made $100 in two days but I got up at 5 and wasn't finished until dark or after. I was thrilled! a few weeks later the same people needed some one to help with hay. I went. Throughout the summer I did a lot of odd farm jobs there. 3 days before I turned 14 I saw a 'help wanted' sign at the local feed store. I asked how old you had to be and they said 14. My parents where hesitant but let me go. I worked there for almost a year when some guy down the road showed up at our house saying that he heard us kids where good workers and he needed someone to help with his pigs. I went and have been working there for a long time. I also help one local farmer clean his barn each fall for the barn dance and help pick veggies, butcher chickens and turkeys, weed, clean, build, handle sheep and alpacas on shearing days, make hay, and just all 'round odd jobs for many other farmers around. Mom can't wait until I get my licence so I can drive myself everywhere.

So, never got an allowance but did have lot's of chances to make money if we had a mind to. Now we were/are home schooled so that very well might change things. I was never and am not in 4H, FFA, Co-op, or Sports.

Hope this helps!

@micah wotring you are a good hardworking kid. Your parents should be proud! And I bet they are!