Family Work System #5,231 … or so it seems
Wow – chores … jobs … work. It takes great effort to keep this going in our family.
We did a ticket system. This one bothered me the most. I wanted the kids to work because it was important as a member of our family – not to earn a prize. We don’t always have immediate rewards in life. This one didn’t last long… maybe a summer. The kids really liked it though. They liked earning prizes from mom’s closet.
We had a super system that worked for a few years. We used wet erase markers and the kids marked things off… and then started afresh every day. Then they grew lazy and stopped marking and stopped doing.
Then I read The Entitlement Trap by the Eyres. A great book that helped me think about teaching our kids how to manage money… having a family work system… a family legal system.
Based on that I put together this point system… we wanted to teach our children to be honorable members of the family… and weekly “allowance” (how I hate that term though) earnings were based on your efforts & work.
This one I put together and we used it for like 2 weeks. Too complicated. I wasn’t following through every night with the kids. We have some major issues to resolve… such as personal hygiene for the boys, follow-through on jobs, etc.
This was Jimmy’s less-than-one-week plan. I decided it might be best if I kept it in my court since I’m home most of the day with the tots. I can’t follow through on something they are reporting to Jimmy on. I didn’t like the demerit thing either. Yes, there are consequences for behavior… but I didn’t want to focus on that.
Take #5,231 … Let’s Try this. This one is a little more ‘loose’ compared to the one above. The kids ‘earnings’ will still be based on this. They save 10% for missions, 10% for college, & 10% goes to tithing. The rest is budgeted for clothes, entertainment, extras. They get roughly half their age every week… so for Hannah… $5. We have a check register where they track their deposits and withdrawals. I’m not sure I believe in the ‘earning’ system. But we have a motivation problem… and this might get us out of a rut. I know we’ll have to tweak..
Most of their ‘earnings’ are based on their diligence (being thorough… stay on task) in their family jobs. They have 5 jobs a week that I pick with them. I saw an idea on pinterest to put instructions for each job so they know how to do it (especially great for #2 child who claims he didn’t know how to do something). If they want to earn extra money, they can pick extra jobs. Here are a few:
I don’t like the idea of allowance… but it’s much better if they really are earning it… and not just given $ for nothing. I want my kids to learn how to manage money. Will this help? I guess we’ll see. Child #1 already saves her money for college (like father… like daughter). Child #2 & #3… money burns a hole in their pocket (hmmm… like their mother.)
As we all know, I spend more time & effort creating systems than implementing them. But I’m determined to find something that will work for a few years… and then we’ll maybe swap things up.
It’s such a tricky balance to teach the kids the value of hard work/accomplishment/fulfillment … and then somehow encourage them along. We’ve had lots of complaining about simple tasks that need to be done. It takes a lot of hard work to keep this family going… and we need each child. I hope we can teach these principles in a way that is appropriate. I know the Spirit can guide us as we listen. This is my hope… sigh…
