OT/MISC I'm curious, What do kids get for a weekly allowance nowadays?
- Thread starter ainitfunny
- Start date
lanningro
Veteran Member
Room and Board. At 12 YO I really wanted a Crossman pump up pellet gun. Got a job busing tables at local restaurant for .35 cents an hour. In HS worked after school at a machine shop, made pizzas on the weekend. College worked a full time job at an auto parts store.
Grew up in an upper middle class family, Dad was a bank president, Mom a loan officer at another bank. I suppose I could have hustled my parents for WAM (walking around money) I just never thought about it.
Grew up in an upper middle class family, Dad was a bank president, Mom a loan officer at another bank. I suppose I could have hustled my parents for WAM (walking around money) I just never thought about it.
gjwandkids
Contributing Member
We do that too. Everyone in the house is responsible for something that maintains the place we live. (Age appropriate of course). We all live here. Even when they were little, they could help mate socks or fold laundry, make their bed, etc...I still do the bulk of everything, but they all help. Even the adults who live elsewhere still come back for big projects, and I don't have to ask them. My son that lives at home will call his brothers up and let them know we're doing something that requires muscle, and the men show up. For some reason they don't like the idea of Mom lifting heavy things. They know that I can. They just don't think I should have to.
dstraito
TB Fanatic
Just to clarify, this is not what my kids got.
They at best got a few dollars a week just to buy various things and they had to work for it, no cell phones or computers til later.
psychgirl
Has No Life - Lives on TB
We never got an allowance and I can ***see the eye rolls from here***should we ever had asked for one!
I started babysitting for neighbors when I was probably 12, 13 years old?
Thats the only way I ever had any extra pocket money….which wasn’t THAT much lol…..until the one night a neighbor man called to “ask me if I could stay late for him”….I later told my parents he was hollering into the phone and lots of laughing talking people in the background which they knew immediately was from a bar.
He rolled in about midnight drunk as a skunk, then handed me 50$ after some serious wallet fumbling
He definitely paid extra for being sloppy drunk !
Still remember that to this day. My parents forbid me to ever babysit for him again….when I got a lot older I understood why my dad had this little snicker he tried to hide when I told him how much the man paid me though, cause he KNEW the guy messed up paying me that much …(bummer, that was serious coin for a 12 yr old!! Parents were NOT happy because IIRC, rumors already swirled he was stepping out on his wife)
So there you go. No allowance info here.
I started babysitting for neighbors when I was probably 12, 13 years old?
Thats the only way I ever had any extra pocket money….which wasn’t THAT much lol…..until the one night a neighbor man called to “ask me if I could stay late for him”….I later told my parents he was hollering into the phone and lots of laughing talking people in the background which they knew immediately was from a bar.
He rolled in about midnight drunk as a skunk, then handed me 50$ after some serious wallet fumbling
He definitely paid extra for being sloppy drunk !
Still remember that to this day. My parents forbid me to ever babysit for him again….when I got a lot older I understood why my dad had this little snicker he tried to hide when I told him how much the man paid me though, cause he KNEW the guy messed up paying me that much …(bummer, that was serious coin for a 12 yr old!! Parents were NOT happy because IIRC, rumors already swirled he was stepping out on his wife)
So there you go. No allowance info here.
Last edited:
Greenspode
Veteran Member
I think giving kids an allowance is an important element in raising adults who know how to manage money. In addition, I also think it is important for kids to have some "pocket money" in order to enjoy life and activities with their friends.
I remember times being that kid who sat there thirsty while my friends all bought a kool-aid to drink at the corner store, or being the only kid who didn't have a quarter to buy a popsicle while all my friends did, or being the one kid who couldn't go the the movie because I didn't have a dollar, so I sat outside and waited for them to come out.
I am sure there are many life lessons to be learned from being poor, or being excluded from the social scene because of not having any money to participate, but I also think it is important for kids to learn to manage and budget money, and for kids to be able to enjoy their lives and doing things with their friends.
I swear, it sounds like some of you are determined that the only way to raise responsible and reasonable adults is to make them suffer through embarrassing, socially isolated, and un-pleasant childhoods.
Our kids got a reasonable allowance for their age, so that they could venture forth into the world able to buy a treat or engage in an activity with their friends once in a while. As they got older, they also got an allowance for clothes and things like sharing a pizza with friends, or going to a concert or a movie. Funny enough, this has not damaged them as adults.
Their allowance was not tied in to chores, though they had plenty of those, but there were additional opportunities to earn more money, and working was a well known concept to them at a young age.
There is a real tone from some of you that makes it seem as though you only had children so that you could take out your frustrations in life on them, and you continue to view them as some sort of an enemy, even into adult hood. That makes me sad; for you and for them.
I remember times being that kid who sat there thirsty while my friends all bought a kool-aid to drink at the corner store, or being the only kid who didn't have a quarter to buy a popsicle while all my friends did, or being the one kid who couldn't go the the movie because I didn't have a dollar, so I sat outside and waited for them to come out.
I am sure there are many life lessons to be learned from being poor, or being excluded from the social scene because of not having any money to participate, but I also think it is important for kids to learn to manage and budget money, and for kids to be able to enjoy their lives and doing things with their friends.
I swear, it sounds like some of you are determined that the only way to raise responsible and reasonable adults is to make them suffer through embarrassing, socially isolated, and un-pleasant childhoods.
Our kids got a reasonable allowance for their age, so that they could venture forth into the world able to buy a treat or engage in an activity with their friends once in a while. As they got older, they also got an allowance for clothes and things like sharing a pizza with friends, or going to a concert or a movie. Funny enough, this has not damaged them as adults.
Their allowance was not tied in to chores, though they had plenty of those, but there were additional opportunities to earn more money, and working was a well known concept to them at a young age.
There is a real tone from some of you that makes it seem as though you only had children so that you could take out your frustrations in life on them, and you continue to view them as some sort of an enemy, even into adult hood. That makes me sad; for you and for them.
psychgirl
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Yes and yes.
I was very often “that kid” you just described but for a girl who had friends who DID have the extra money it got real tough as we got older….those girls always had the new fancy clothes, always had money to do just about whatever they wanted. They shared with me as we were all tighter than bugs together but it was still really hard.
I can remember that, to this day too.
We were t starving and had what we needed or not even considered as “poor people” but my stepdad worked in a factory. With six kids it wasn’t easy
keeping it together in the 70’s.
We never owed anyone and he paid the bills first.
I think he was terrified of owing money or getting behind.
Greenspode
Veteran Member
There were certainly times when extra money just wasn't around, and it sounds like that may have been the case for your family growing up. In situations like that, the kids should know that money is tight and accept the limitations from that situation. Ours certainly did.
There is a difference between literally not having enough money, and having enough but thinking that it builds character or something for kids to be excluded or deprived just from some warped view of what raising children should look like.
I just can't imagine having children, and then believing that they were my enemy and needed to be treated like animals and only provided with food, water and shelter in order to grow up properly. No sense of joy, fun, exploration, social activities, experiences or pleasure allowed!! And they wonder why they have bad relationships with their adult children. Like I said, very sad.
RememberGoliad
Veteran Member
Me, 70's and early 80's, no automatic 'allowance'. I did however have that walking-around-money people have mentioned, but I earned it. From about age 10, I was expected to be up and on a tractor at dawn when field work needed doing, and have a couple hours' work done by time school started, and then show up directly from school and do whatever around the shop and barnyard until the regular hands' quitting time and take over one of the tractors and go another hour or two. It wasn't slave labor. Dad said I was doing a man's work, doing that every day as needed, and so he'd pay me a man's wages.... IIRC he paid his hands in the 70's about $75 a week plus house and utilities, so I got 60 dollars a week (they didn't feed the hands, but did feed me LOL.) 50 of it went directly into the savings account, I got a ten dollar bill to do with what I wanted.
When I turned 16 and started driving, I got a 'raise'. Dad gave me the use of an old, worn-out farm pickup--a '62 F100 that was so worn out that it couldn't catch a cold. But it was FREEDOM! Never got to roam much, that work still needed doing, but after layby until harvest, and again after harvest and fall prep, there was some 'free time' that I got to go play. To this day, October is my favorite month of the year, with work done and the prospect of hunting season next on the calendar!
I did get a bit uppity in (I think) my senior year of high school and blew off work a couple times. Come Friday I discovered that the 50/wk going into the bank was ironclad and the walking around money was after that was done. The first week I got nothing, I asked him and he said that I'd only worked enough to earn 37 bucks that week, so he put that in the bank and the next week was all going into the bank, then if I did as we'd agreed years ago, I'd get 7 bucks the third week, since I'd be finished putting that 37 dollar week's 50 in the bank. Had a profound effect on me, especially because it gave me insight into how come he was so tightfisted even after a good year.
Now, my kids, born mid 80's through 1990, got what they needed, and when we'd go into town, if it was in the cards (and wallet LOL) they'd get handed a few bucks to spend as they wished. I'm talking like 5 bucks each. It's interesting what they did with it. One would act all (GTR)-rich and stuff on candy and chocolate bars, one bought hair ties and stuff like that, but one would buy a piece of bubble gum for two cents and call it good. And usually HE would buy that with a couple of pennies he found in the parking lot! I went into his room for some reason, when he was in high school (early 2000's) and found his stash.....it was anchored by a STACK of five dollar bills! Kid had a couple thousand dollars in there! To this day he squirrels away most of his money.
Different kids, raised much the same way, will respond differently to what they get. Proud of how they all turned out, though. All in mid- to late-30's now and independent of *needing* help from the parents. Might not be my choices they've made to get there, but get there they did, and the sausage they made looks good, even if some of the process was messy.
When I turned 16 and started driving, I got a 'raise'. Dad gave me the use of an old, worn-out farm pickup--a '62 F100 that was so worn out that it couldn't catch a cold. But it was FREEDOM! Never got to roam much, that work still needed doing, but after layby until harvest, and again after harvest and fall prep, there was some 'free time' that I got to go play. To this day, October is my favorite month of the year, with work done and the prospect of hunting season next on the calendar!
I did get a bit uppity in (I think) my senior year of high school and blew off work a couple times. Come Friday I discovered that the 50/wk going into the bank was ironclad and the walking around money was after that was done. The first week I got nothing, I asked him and he said that I'd only worked enough to earn 37 bucks that week, so he put that in the bank and the next week was all going into the bank, then if I did as we'd agreed years ago, I'd get 7 bucks the third week, since I'd be finished putting that 37 dollar week's 50 in the bank. Had a profound effect on me, especially because it gave me insight into how come he was so tightfisted even after a good year.
Now, my kids, born mid 80's through 1990, got what they needed, and when we'd go into town, if it was in the cards (and wallet LOL) they'd get handed a few bucks to spend as they wished. I'm talking like 5 bucks each. It's interesting what they did with it. One would act all (GTR)-rich and stuff on candy and chocolate bars, one bought hair ties and stuff like that, but one would buy a piece of bubble gum for two cents and call it good. And usually HE would buy that with a couple of pennies he found in the parking lot! I went into his room for some reason, when he was in high school (early 2000's) and found his stash.....it was anchored by a STACK of five dollar bills! Kid had a couple thousand dollars in there! To this day he squirrels away most of his money.
Different kids, raised much the same way, will respond differently to what they get. Proud of how they all turned out, though. All in mid- to late-30's now and independent of *needing* help from the parents. Might not be my choices they've made to get there, but get there they did, and the sausage they made looks good, even if some of the process was messy.
Firebird
Has No Life - Lives on TB
I think those of us who had parents that went through the depression, lived how you described. Bills were always paid first, and they hated owing anyone