The first time she considered spending it was after she got Shaggy in August. She said she wanted to get him some toys. I had already purchased some toys and his leash for her birthday so I suggested we wait for a while before getting him more. Yesterday was the day. Tamarin wanted him to have a gift for Christmas.
As you can see he looks oh so happy about his new sweater.... at least she also got him a stocking of toys. He's happy about those.
She was so proud paying for it herself. This made me rethink the concept of paying for chores. What do you do? Do you expect your children to do chores out of obligation or do you give them an allowance?
I'm on the fence. Would love to hear other people's ideas.
My dad split the fence on this when we were kids. We had a short list of chores that we were expected to do every day as part of maintaining the house as a family. However, if we did extra things around the house or went with my dad when he cleaned at the print shop he worked at on Sunday mornings, we were paid. $1 for helping out on Sundays since it was an all morning cleaning spree, and 10 cents for every extra chore done correctly (not halfassed). When we were older and could do more intensive work (mowing the lawn, sweeping the garage, fully cleaning out and organizing closets) the rate of pay increased. It was a good way to teach us the value of working to earn rewards while not having us expect to be rewarded for every responsibility, I thought.
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