ScreenCoach

Why Kids Should Get Paid to Do Chores.By Alexia – Aged 12

Editor’s Note: Alexia wrote this piece as an English task for school. As a parent, I’m not a big fan of the idea of paying kids for chores – they should contribute because they are a part of the family, right? However, reading Alexia’s arguments has made me revisit my opinion – I wonder if it will do the same for you?

12 year old Alexia writes a compelling homework article arguing why kids should get paid to do chores

It is debated whether or not children should be paid for doing chores. It is being discussed because at this point in time children are growing older and starting to go into adulthood and they need to learn the responsibilities of money. I very much believe children should get paid for doing chores. My arguments are: Children need to learn how to save money, Kids don’t have to beg for money and it is a good reason to get kids off screens.

Argument 1

Firstly, Children need to learn how to save money because it is a great skill in life. As a fact: out of 22 kids in 7A only 4 kids actually get paid for doing chores which we definitely need to change but as another fact, half of the class doesn’t do set chores at all so this is outrageous (as Miss Purcell said). The more kids who are able to learn the ways of money for the future the better. From personal experience I don’t do set chores but I do help as much as I can around the house and I do get paid but not much which isn’t bad at all and I still learn the benefits of saving money.

Argument 2

Secondly, if kids help out at the house and get paid they can use their own money that they worked hard to earn to buy the thing they want. We have to stop kids from begging their parents saying “I want this, can I get that”. According to the survey I did on the 20 people in my class, 16 people have asked their parents to buy them something. If they had been earning money themselves their parents wouldn’t have to give in to the begging of the children. Parents all have something they might want I am sure, so they work to earn the money to get it themselves. Their kids could have that same experience just if they pay them for hard work.

Argument 3

Thirdly, when do you think a kid would ever get off that screen and come and have some family time? Never, and if you want to fix that my suggestion is to pay the kids for doing chores how does that help you ask. Kids will spend so much time in front of a screen these days. From a kids perspective if there was a toy or a video game I wanted I would take any chance to get money even if it meant doing the hardest thing like getting off my screen. According to a parents article I found online, 60% of people are paying their kids to do chores and it very much gets them off their screens.

When kids come out to do chores it does 3 things 1 it helps parents not have to do chores themselves, 2 it gets kids off their devices, 3 the parents can actually talk to their kid because they are always in their room on their devices.

Rebuttal

Some people may believe that kids should do chores not just to get paid but to help the family, most kids don’t care. If you think of a family, the parents mainly do all the work cleaning, washing clothes etc and the kids get to live in paradise. We can’t let it go on like that, they really need to help and if you want kids to actually help with household chores just give them some money for doing chores. It doesn’t have to be a lot, even a very small amount, but it can influence them to just help out once in a while. If you want parents to have to argue with their kids about doing chores well then go ahead because I see no point in doing that. All I say and I hope you agree is to pay kids for doing chores.

Conclusion

To sum up, Children should get paid for doing chores! Why? Children should learn how to save money, kids don’t have to beg their parents for money and It’s a good reason to get kids off their screens. Now if you tell me that children should be set up for life by learning money I definitely do not want to see your child’s future!

What do you & your kids think?

Come and join in the conversation in our Facebook group www.facebook.com/groups/screencoach

Stephanie Kakris

Stephanie Kakris

Stephanie Kakris has a Masters in Psychology and is a published parenting author. She is the co-founder of ScreenCoach, a combined hardware and software platform where kids are allocated a set amount of screen time, and after their time is up, they need to go and complete activities such as exercise, chores or non-screen play to earn more time before they can resume.
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