Paying your kids for yardwork..

How much?

My yard is about an hour with the self propelled mower.

 

I pay the 8yo in hot wheels. Your yard would earn him 2-3 cars.

Other than his pay, getting him into reasonable negotiation and tactics is equally important to me .
He learned the hard way moving branches where he thought “a couple” and i meant the pile. He still pulled through, but is much more careful with setting terms

 

Three hots and a cot, under a roof.

 

Wait until he learns about contracts.

 

when I was younger my father made me mow the lawns twice a week and clean the house every day before they were home from work. my grandfather made me mow our lawn and the surrounding 5 neighbors lawns every weekend. front and back. For free. If some of his friends had home projects like digging trenches for sprinkler systems I’d have to be right there with them shoveling and picking. All day. From sun up to sun down. No pay.

at the time I was hella resentful. I am now grateful. I am capable of doing extremely hard work that is super repetitive and not go crazy. I can see things through. That’s the lesson I took from it. I think it’s what gave me the mental fortitude to climb big walls when I was a rock climber. and deal with being alone in a cell for months. And when I started working in the auto industry I spent the first 5 years doing repetitive tasks before anyone put a spray gun in my hand.

If it were me…. I’d not pay a thing. I’d be out there with them doing it. Showing them by example that many things in life are mundane, repetitive, and hard. Payment would be based on their weekly grade reports.


I also had an idea to assign differing dollar values to chores around the house. With the availability of chore credit and a set time period to complete. If they complete the chores within the allowable timeframe their available chore credit goes up. If they don’t their chore credit goes down to the point where they are working for free. With chores being added and subtracted on top of the balances to simulate interest rates. giving them a solid understanding of how their future credit score works and how it can affect them.

 

We haven't reached the lawn mowing stage yet. And to be honest, we may not for a while since my mower would be difficult for him to use for a few more years. And I like doing it!

As far as chores, they get $1 for pretty much everything. Folding and putting away a basket of laundry, emptying and loading the dishwasher, taking the trash out and replacing the bag, rolling the can out and back on trash day.

 

That's equivalent to a quarter from your youth?

 

Mine does it for free...but he gets to use the diesel zero turn...

 

If that!

But a basket of towels can be folded and put away in ~5 minutes? That's the equivalent of $12/hr. Pretty good for 12 and 9 years old.

 

Way overpaid. Evidence that parents are part of the problem.

 

Kids need to get paid and understand the basics of capitalism and how things work before they get old and are lost

Public schools will not teach them these values, ever

Whether the dollar amount is too high or too low is irrelevant

Paying the kids for tasks is for educational purposes

How to spend
How to save
How to plan
How bigger risk and dedication comes with bigger reward

 

Exactly.

My son gets $1 for every chore that he doesn't have to be reminded to do so. He also runs a register, so he gets the responsibility of knowing how much he's making and how much he's spending.

I guess if you don't want to teach your kids the concepts of money, not paying them to prove to the internet you're hard ass is your choice and would explain why most Americans are fucking horrible with money.

 

Sarcasm detector fail?

I'm on the same page, kinda-sorta. Kids need to learn the value of money, along with the value of work. Not every chore/job/task needs to be rewarded with money, but can be used to introduce them to the real value of community, good relations with close neighbors, friends and family. In the long run, that's priceless.

My family didn't have the ability to provide money for chores, but we gained something arguably more valuable than the nickel or quarter that we would have spent at the corner store anyways.

I "earned" $.27.5/hour with my first job, great lesson in capitalism for a young kid.

 

If he's old enough, and the local residential area allows for this model, teach him how to do it right. Cut, edge, blow, haul off or bag as needed. Once he's at a point of doing it well unsupervised have him solicit neighbors for paying jobs.

 

I think there are more important lessons for children than the capitalism indoctrination. For example, family. How to help and contribute to the family unit without expecting compensation. How to be selfless and helpful. No wonder America is so f*&ed up. This capitalism shit is out of control. Let the kids be kids. They have all the time in the world later in life to be dealing with money 24/7.

 

One of my running boys back in Jr High school started doing this. He tried to get me to go in with him, but I had better things to do... Like that cute little redhead down the block named Heidi. I can still remember seeing him riding his bike with his lawnmower in tow strapped to a Radio Flyer.

Fast forward to 2020 and he sold his landscaping company to his employees, he's worth well over 8 figures, and will never ""have to"" again.

 

I love when people that enjoy a great life based on the fruits of capitalism lecture me on how bad it is.

Amazing

 

You're going out with a bang today.

It's definitely entertaining.

 

Clearly you don’t know the stress of just getting up and riding a bike around the world