by Hope
While the twins are enjoying their new-found financial freedom, my little ones are not enjoying having to rely on me finding “paid jobs” for them to earn spending money. I either don’t have enough jobs for them to earn the amount they want or they don’t want to do the jobs I want done (think work outside around the bugs – eww! Ok, mostly because there are bees.)
So my ingenuous daughter has made me a proposition I couldn’t refuse. She will clean one room a day for $1, so she could earn $7 per week. Although we call her a Princess she really is not that personality wise. She is an excellent cleaner when she puts her mind to it and an even better organizer. So I quickly took her up on her offer and even offered to give bonuses for above and beyond.
I have a feeling her little brother is going to catch on to her “deal” and offer the same one. My house is going to be spotless! Not to mention this takes the pressure off me to come up with “paid jobs” all the time. Score!
Before I get accused of child labor violations, remember we live in a tiny apartment and really don’t have much “stuff” at all. You can thoroughly clean most rooms in less than 1/2 hour unless we’ve done crafting or something that requires a bit more effort.
And all the kids continue to do chores regularly, but that typically involves dog duty or once a week house cleaning/organizing.
Hope is a resourceful, solutions-driven online business manager with over two decades of experience helping clients streamline operations, manage projects, and grow their businesses through digital marketing and technology.
But life has a way of rewriting your plans.
A year ago, Hope made the decision to move in with her aging parents full time – a season she wouldn’t trade, even as it came with its own financial and emotional weight. Earlier this year, she lost her mother, and is now walking the tender, disorienting path of grief while learning what “forward” looks like from here.
Hope came to the Blogging Away Debt community in 2015 as a single mom raising five foster and adoptive children. She’s written through job changes, financial setbacks, and the bittersweet transition to an empty nest. Her kids are finding their footing in the world now – and so is she.
Rooted in faith and fueled by the same perseverance she’s brought to every hard season, Hope is ready to face her finances with fresh eyes and an honest pen. She believes that clarity, courage, and community can change the trajectory of anyone’s story including her own.
She lives in Austin, TX with her dad, loves adventures with her dog Addie, and is figuring out, one step at a time, what this next chapter is meant to be.
I love that this also incentives your littles to not make giant disasters in the first place. It’s easier to earn your dollar if the trash is already in the trash can, toys are already put away, and toothpaste residue hasn’t been allowed to create a crust on the sink.
Great idea! I’d snap up their help in an instant too 🙂
I remember those days! Great idea from Princess. I would snap up that deal too.
I have no problem with you putting your children to work because this benefits your family. You are not running a sweatshop you are living life. When my boys were of the age where money began to be of importance, I instituted a job jar. I placed weekly jobs in the jar and each day of their summer break they had to pick three jobs out of the jar…examples: vacuum the hall and steps, clean two toilets, unload/load the dishwasher, fold a load of laundry, etc. Each day except Sunday they picked out three jobs, they could put one job back in the jar, but it would be there later in the week…sometimes they traded if one had to vacuum the hall and the other the living room they figured why not do both. I had very few arguments and they had $6 per week…making their beds and picking up their rooms were not in the jar, that was expected. Their significant others recognize that they know how to clean properly and back then my house was cleaner than it is today.
I love her idea because she iniated it herself.