[asudosandwich]

Yeah young children are pretty bad drivers, I can attest to that. Sometime around age 4 I swiped my dad’s car keys from the kitchen table (I recall I had to climb a chair to reach the top of the table). I think I wanted to mimic how adults operated cars.

Luckily, I didn’t make it far. When I finally got it into gear I crashed into the viaduct paralleling our house blocking the road until another motorist found me.

My parents didn’t spank us often but I sure caught hell for that stunt and my allowance was garnished for a very long time!

[JshWright]

You had an allowance at age 4?

[Pfhreak]

Our kid, who is 5, gets an allowance. It's nominal, but it teaches her to save/spend/share money and it's a good way to teach numbers and basic math.

So far, she's managed to set aside enough to get a dinosaur lego set she really, really wanted and also gone on some carousel rides and bought candy once or twice. It's been a benefit for everyone, I think.

[JshWright]

Yeah, we've taught or kids those things from an early age as well, but I* think it's a bit early for an allowance. I think the biggest reason for that is not wanting to couple the idea of routine chores with the allowance.

There concept of routine chores (keep your room clean, help keep shared spaces clean, etc) should be well established before an allowance enters the picture. The allowance isn't for doing those things that are just a basic expectation of family life, and starting them both at an early age risks coupling them.

* This is my own personal opinion about our family, and not in any way a value judgement on differing approaches

[Pfhreak]

We don't couple it to chores. Chores are something everyone does because it helps the family. We're trying to be intentional about not connecting those concepts.

I think we started "chores" when she was 3. Obviously a three year old doesn't really do much, but she showed interest in feeding the dog and folding some blankets so those became her chores. We make a point of having both parents visibly do chores together.

We'll see how effective this is in another ten years, I suppose.

[winrid]

Teaching to save a % of your income early on is awesome! Good parenting.

[Pfhreak]

Thanks! There's a product called a moon jar that we have found some success with and gave us the idea.

[dhosek]

Son, now that you're in high school, it's time you start getting an allowance. However, remember that incident with the car ten years ago? It's time to start paying it off.