Giving Allowance to Children. Pros and Cons.

Making the decision to give your child an allowance is a personal one. Some parents feel that a child should do certain tasks every day simply because it’s part of being a human. Other parents feel that a child should receive an allowance as their daily tasks are like their job when they are younger.

If you’re teetering between giving an allowance to your child or not, then today I have a list to help you determine if you’re ready to give your children an allowance or not. Here are some reasons for giving allowance to children. Pros and Cons.

Giving Allowance to Children. Pros and Cons.

Cons of Giving Allowance to Children

May Encourage Entitlement

When you start an allowance for your children it may backfire on you as a parent. As your children start to earn an allowance for completing certain tasks, they may be as open to helping around the home for free. This entitlement can spread into other areas of life and in turn wreak havoc on your household.

Uncertainty of Amount

While giving an allowance means you’ll come up with a specific dollar amount to give your child per chore or per week, it can be tedious trying to determine the proper amount of allowance. It’s often said that younger children should get less while older children should get more of an allowance. It’s a difficult decision to make and can often leave parents more stressed.

Teachers Working isn’t Always Fun

This is sort of a pro and a con for giving allowance to children. When children grow up getting an allowance for chores they often start to associate tedious, not-so-fun tasks with making money. This could potentially discourage your children from having a desire to get a job when they become teens.

Pros of Giving Allowance to Children

Teaches Money Management Skills

When you opt to give your children an allowance they start to comprehend the value of money. It’s important to teach money management to children at a young age because it’s often one of the most overlooked educational components in school systems.

Encourages Budgeting Skills

In most households, an allowance isn’t something that a child can live off of, but it’s enough to help teach them budgeting skills. As your children start to accumulate a list of wants, they are able to save and plan ahead with their allowance to buy their own things. At the same time, they will learn how to be frugal in using their money.

Increases Self-Confidence and Sense of Responsibility

When your children start to comprehend money management and budgeting skills they’ll start to feel more self-confident. Children who are given an allowance to complete chores and allowed some lead way in how to spend that money will have higher self-esteem. They will also try hard to finish things as they are expected to. Thus, they will build a sense of responsibility as well.

There are many pros and cons to giving an allowance to children. This debate has been going strong for many generations. Whether you’re for an allowance for children, against it or still deciding if this is the right choice for your household, here are some things to consider before opting to give your children an allowance:

What chores will be required and what chores will be open for the allowance?

How many tasks should your children complete each day, week, or month?

What are some age-appropriate chores that you could pay your children to do?

How will an allowance fit into the household budget?

Once you’ve thoroughly thought about the pros and cons of giving an allowance to your children and discussed the questions above with your partner, you should be in a more positive position to make a logical and reasonable decision on whether or not you’ll start giving your children an allowance.