I wanted to do a follow up post to my post “Creating a Chore List for Malea” because I’ve had quite a few people asking me how it’s working and how she’s doing with all her new jobs.
I can honestly say that she’s doing great! She has totally taken ownership of her jobs and I can tell that she is proud of herself at the end of the day when she gets to check off the jobs she completed that day. I knew turning some of her regular “chores” into jobs would make it easier to get her to do them, but I had no idea how much easier it would be! Now when we ask her to clean up her room or take over her dishes she says, “Is that one of my jobs?” and when we say, “yes” she does it without complaining! Every once in awhile she will complain about having to pick up her toys but as soon as I say, “I’m happy to do your job for you” she always says, “NO, I want to buy…” whatever it is she’s saving for at the time.
I can’t even tell you how proud of her I was the first time we put her money in her little purse and took it to TJ Maxx to buy this Cinderella Barbie doll she’d had her eye on! Watching her make her first purchase with her own money was a proud moment for me as a mommy!
{Sorry for the poor picture quality, it was taken with my phone and it’s hard to get her to hold still!}
I know she was really proud of herself too because everyone we saw for the rest of the week she’d show them the doll and say, “I bought this with my own money that I got from doing my jobs!”
She has also learned a great lesson, patience. Right after she found the Cinderella doll she also found a stuffed mermaid at the bookstore. When she had enough money to buy one of them she had to choose which one she was going to buy first. I could see that it was a hard decision for her but she chose the Cinderella doll and then for the next 2 weeks we just went to the bookstore to “visit” the mermaid. I think this lesson was so important for her to learn because we can’t always buy everything we want, right when we want it, sometimes we have to wait and save up a little.
Let me tell you, when she finally had enough money to buy the mermaid she was ecstatic! She marched right into the bookstore, grabbed “Swimmy” (she had already named her) and proudly walked up to buy her. She now tells everyone that she bought Swimmy and Cinderella with her own money! It’s adorable and I love how proud of herself she is!
It’s been fun taking her to buy toys with her money but I think I am most proud of her for what she’s doing with the 20% of the rest of her money! 10% of her wages go into savings and the other 10% goes to God.
Last Friday I took her to her Daddy’s bank and she got to open her own bank account! She opened the account with $2.11, and I was so proud! I told her it was going to be her “saving for a car” account so now she tells people she’s already saving for her car. She told the account specialist that she wants a rainbow colored Jeep. I love it!
Then on Sunday I put the money in her “Giving to God” bucket in her little purse and she carried it with her to church. When we got to church I took her up to the front and helped her put the money in the offering plate. I was seriously so proud that I wanted to cry. I love that at such a young age she is already learning that it’s fun to play with our money but it’s also really important to save and give back to the Lord!
I’m so glad I implemented the “job” system when I did but I honestly think I could have started a little earlier. If you have little one, or even older kids, this is a great way to teach them about money and it’s great for you because you get work done around the house! 🙂 For the full original post click here.
How wonderful – Malea is really growing up. She is developing saving and spending skill that will last her a lifetime – you are a wonderful mommy, Anna.
Thank you Anne Marie, that means a lot. 🙂
Hi! I just read your articles and I have to say I love it! I am 20 and I’m not looking to have kids anytime soon but I love this idea. My parents did pretty much the same thing with me when I was a child and I honestly love them for it. It taught me at an early age what it meant to be responsible and the importance of giving back to God. Thank you for sharing this. I really appreciate it :).
Thank you for this comment April! It’s awesome to hear, from a “childs” point of view how it benefited you. I hope these early lessons will help Malea understand the importance of saving and that she’ll never get herself in debt!
Anna
Oh my gosh, this is so wonderful to here. What a sweetheart she is. You must be so proud. I comment and even pinned your first post. Reading this makes me wish I had implemented it already. I’m definitely doing so now!
Awesome! I’m glad I could give you some inspiration. 🙂
Really sweet seeing the progress. Since I do not get an allowance I think I need a chore chart for myself! DH & I need to come to some understanding.
Haha, that’s hilarious! Let me know how that turns out. 🙂
This really sounds great but I just have one question. If you ask her to do something that isn’t one of her assigned paid jobs how does she respond and what is your approach to that? I am just concerned that my kids would refuse to do anything else unless they were being paid for it.
Honestly I haven’t had a problem with that yet. Maybe that was an advantage to staring the “jobs” when she was a little older, because she definitely knows that there are things I ask her to do that aren’t on her list and she has to do them because that’s part of listening and obeying. Sorry I don’t have a better answer for you. :/
Anna
That is awesome! My 8 year old wants to buy stuff all of the time, but not enough to actually work for it. I have tried so many different things. I’m worried she’ll never figure money out.
I am so glad it’s working out for her! I’m a bit conflicted about the ‘paying per job’ thing. I too am an FPU grad but I worry that giving a price to every task will make it harder for me to understand that there are some things we do just because we are part of the household. So I pay my 7 yo $5 a week and my 3yo $1/wk to do a set list of chores, plus ‘whatever other help mom or dad needs’. That means my 7 yo has to empty the recycle bin (and pays me $1 if he doesn’t do it) but also has to help carry in groceries (as does anyone who wants to eat!), load bags of clothes in the car for goodwill drops, and other things that aren’t ‘set’ weekly jobs. I’m afraid that if I assign a price to everything, then he’ll stand there with a hand out waiting for cold hard cash whenever I ask for him to get his brother a drink. LOL.
Would be interested to know how others have handled this…
We are also concerned that there are some tasks that should just be done, and not paid for (e.g. Putting on her own shoes and coat for example, which is something we’ve been having trouble with). For these types of things we’ve decided to “pay” with a point system, and when our daughter reaches a certain number of points, she gets a special outing or special play time with mommy or daddy. She learns there’s a benefit to doing these types of things for herself, yes, but there’s no association with money.