Recently, I have been doing trial and error about setting new allowance rules for my elementary-school-age children, so I would like to share it in the blog.
What kind of allowance rules does your family have?
Each family has a different way regarding the allowance: how to give it, use it, and save it… There is no correct answer to that, thus it is going to be a tricky question.
In my family, we did not give a monthly allowance to our kids. Instead of it, we used to let them use the money freely, which was given to them on New Year and their birthday as gifts.
As a result, they could buy almost anything they wanted. It turned out to be an excess. They do not want anything now. This situation made me reconsider whether I gave too much money to them.
So I looked up the average allowance for elementary school children in Japan and found out it ranges from 500 to 1000 yen per month. The most common amount is 500 yen! (which meant I gave them ten times more than the average!)
By the way, to my surprise, the average allowance for kids in the US is about 1,200 yen a week, according to my friend, Chieh, who is also the staff of kfuna. I wonder why there is such a difference between Japan and the States!
When I looked into different allowance types, I found the chore-based allowance especially interesting.
The chore-based rule is to set up how much you should pay your children for completing different chores and pay them monthly.
The following are some points I found particularly interesting and helpful:
●Cut the money in half if the kids do the housework after being asked
⇨Let them do it voluntarily
●Double the money for bathtub cleaning and garbage disposal in winter
⇨The price reflects the amount of labor invested.
●Let the kids understand money needs to be in exchange for their time and work
⇨Not to waste money since it is not easy to get.
●If there are siblings, first come, first get!
⇨Let them take the initiative and see what they can do now!
Following these methods, the kids could learn both the housework and the sense of how to use money. (This will make my life easier as well! )
Therefore, we decided to adopt the chore-based allowance system in our family.
As for their New Year's and birthday money mentioned at the beginning, I decided to save it so they could spend it on their new smartphones when they start middle school.
In the next blog, I will introduce more details about how I carried out the chore-based allowance rules in my family.
こんにちは。
Akiです。
最近、小学生のお小遣いについて試行錯誤しているのでブログにしてみました。
皆様のおうちではお小遣い、どうされていますか？
各家庭によって、お金の考え方、渡し方、使い道、貯め方も様々で、これ！という正解がない難しさがありますよね…
我が家では月々のお小遣いは無く、お年玉と誕生日祝いを自由に使わせています。
欲しいものはほぼ買えてしまうので、今欲しいものが特にないという贅沢な状況になっており、
これは小学生にしては渡し過ぎている…？と思い調べてみました。
すると、小学生お小遣いの平均は全学年とも約500〜1000円でした。
最頻値は全学年とも500円だそう！！
(ということは、10倍あげていた…！！)
ちなみに、友達でありスタッフのCHIEHによると、アメリカではなんと1週間で1200円との事！！
何故こんなに日本と差があるのか、アメリカのお小遣い事情も気になりますね！
お小遣いを調べる中でコレ良い！と思ったのが、
【お小遣いの給与制】でした。
給与制は、お手伝いごとに給与単価を設定し、
1ヶ月分の成果を翌月給与としてもらえるというもの。
私が良いな面白いなと感じた点は…
●頼まれてからやると半額
⇨自主的にやるように！
●冬のお風呂掃除やゴミ捨ては倍額
⇨労力を反映した単価設定！
●これだけ稼ぐにはこれだけの労力と時間が必要だと感じる
⇨無駄遣いしない、働く大変さがわかる！
●兄弟がいる場合、早い者勝ち
⇨率先して動く、今やれる事を探す！
これなら家事も金銭感覚も身につきそう！
(私も楽になりそう♪)
我が家では給与制を採用してみる事にしました。
冒頭述べた、お年玉と誕生日祝いは中学入学時に買うスマホ代等にあてるために私が貯金し管理する事にしました。
次回は、我が家の“コドモ給与制度”についてもう少し詳しくご紹介したいと思います。