Money For Nothing

My two older kids want spending money. Fair enough. If Malorie wants to grow her ass to be the size of mine by spending £10 a week on chocolate, it's her ass. If Braden wants to buy winter clothes in the summer just because they make him look cool, it's his sweat.

I wish they'd get it through their thick heads that money doesn't grow on trees and, since I have to work for my money, they have to work for theirs. They don't have to do much. We have a "rota" so that they alternate chores, and they're not exactly hard chores.

Empty and load the dishwasher. Dishwasher? They complain because we have a dishwasher. They'd complain louder if we didn't have one.

Pick up dog poo. The dog does most of his poo-ing when he goes for walks on the fields, so there's just the occasional clump.

Take out the rubbish. One small kitchen bin. There's another small one in the bathroom that rarely has anything in it. Ditto for the one in my bedroom.

Walk the dog. They're the ones who wanted the dog in the first place, and I told them they had to walk him before we brought him home.

Clean the kitchen floor. Not mop it. I do that. Just make sure the dog food is picked up off the floor and use the little sponge mop thing to wipe up any muddy footprints tracked in.

Then they each have chores specific to them. Malorie gets extra money for cleaning up the ice cream van when Simon gets home from work. He doesn't even work every day, and some days business is so slow there's not much to clean up. Braden gets extra money for ripping up the cardboard boxes that the ice cream and ice lollies come in. Braden takes the wheelie bin round to the front the night before trash collection. Malorie empties the drier and takes the clothes upstairs.

That's it. So does this seem unreasonable? I don't think so, not when they actually get money in return. But it's performance related pay. They ignore their chores, they lose some of their money.

I think that's fair.