Teen Allowance Blown on Starbucks

It is what my kids do with their friends after school. I only dole it out once a week for each kid. Yes, I cringe at the cost, after all it does add up! Its what kids do today, there is no other comparison for me growing up. I never thought of hanging at a coffee shop, that was for adults only. Kids today are more savvy about their beverage choices.

Am I overreacting when I think about the cost,$40.00 a month allowance. This does not take into account for the weekends when they want to hang out with their friends, that is another $40.00. So now I am spending $200.00 on kids to entertain. How does one teach the value of a dollar when a dollar buys zero today. A simple cup of coffee is $1.80, a ticket to the movies is $9.00. Both of my kids are A students and they also participate in team sports. They are good kids. I try to keep things in perspective, but still have a need to somehow teach them that money does not grow on trees. My 13 year old did a lot of babysitting this past summer, but my 11 year can only do paid chores around the house. So far I have come up with dusting, weeding and raking leaves.

I made a rule that they had to do their own laundry and clean their bathroom. I won't pay for those things that teach self-reliance. So where does that leave me? My 13 year old does babysit so she has some responsibility. The 11 year old will dust but balks because I only provide minimum wage. She thinks it should be $10.00. Imagine that!

I told her that a professional cleaning woman charges 10.00-$15.00 per hour, a retail clerk makes $7.85 an hour. She screams,"her friends get paid $20.00 just to do their laundry." The two of us are head butting verbally. I can tell you that I do not want to raise a child of entitlement for fear of hurt feelings. But our society has this thing for enabling our children, over praising what little they contribute, putting them a on a pedastal. The wake-up call has to be now. My daughter thinks it is beneath her to do dusting for less than $10.00. I had to explain to her that if she wants to earn any money this is what I expect, take it or leave it. She cried.

Kids just think parents can just dole out cash for their every whim. I am dead serious about making kids do some type of chore to earn money. Many of us have had to do jobs we never liked. It builds character. It challenges us to perform a task well in spite of what we feel. The media makes kids think being famous and rich just happens over night. "No, it takes a lot of work, some times years before you get famous...and even then many never reach stardom and riches in spite of all the hard work."

Like most busy kids, it can be a challenge when they are in sports after school, then they have home work, but there has to be at least an hour somewhere where they can do a paid chore during the week. We set our kids up for failure and create a false sense of reality when kids are not allowed to work for money. I know this summer when my daughter babysat, she squirreled away her earnings. Suddenly her money was not squandered away so easily because she earned it.