Once your kids are earning should you charge them Housekeeping?

dirtysexymonkey

i think if you need it then you should but if you dont then why do it. for every person who wasnt charged who cant budget there are loads who can budget. everyones different. my dad was charged and my mum wasnt and both can budget well and neither want to charge any of us. they do insist that we save a lot though which i completely agree with but as they say its our home and theyd rather we be here and saving than living in a dinggy scummy bedsit saving less. weve all had to budget our own pocket money since being rally young kids and once it was gone it was gone. tough luck! and we were akl prepared with cleaning and other 'life skills' before we became teenagers. i suppose it depends on who wants to see their kids as a bank and who wants to really prepare them for life because if you did you wouldnt need to take 50% of their wages to teach them a lesson that you should have taught them at five.

Almo

dirtysexymonkey wrote: »

never heard of america then.

Heard of it plenty of times but I thought we were discussing British kids paying keep in British houses and going to British unis.

Mojisola

supermum370 wrote: »

My 18 year old son is working, he's saving up to go to university - should we be asking him for housekeeping or would this be mean.

If he's just working over the summer and going to uni this autumn and is definitely saving his money, I wouldn't charge him housekeeping.

If he's having a year out and will be working all that time, I would expect at least enough money to cover his food during that year.

caledonian_princess

My Mum & Dad charged me keep as soon as I got a job - I gave them a third of my take home pay. They didn't need the money and they put it away in a savings account and gave it all back to me on my 21st birthday. I had no idea they were doing this and it was a lovely surprise, my Mum told me that she knew teenagers always had better things to do with their money than save it so she thought she'd do it for me.

Oldernotwiser

dirtysexymonkey wrote: »

i think if you need it then you should but if you dont then why do it. .

Because it's important that young people learn to be independent and to support themselves. I don't believe that parents should support adult working children, whether they're able to or not; I don't really think that budgeting skills come into it.

Gillyx

When I lived at home with my dad, I didn't pay any "keep" My contribution was the housework, all washing/ironing, doing the food shop, making all dinners and packed lunches. I think it's about contributing, my dad didn't need me to give him money, but I realised he was short on time, so offered to do alot to help him out.

I have friends who pay nothing and friends who pay 1/3 of there wage, and from what I can see they're all rubbish at budgeting, so I don't see the correlation there.

DON79

My first job, earned £40 per week on training scheme - gave my mum £10 a week, £10 a week car insurance, £10 a week petrol and £10 to spend lol!

onlyroz

I wouldn't charge my kids if they were still in education, but if they were in full-time work then I certainly would charge them. Probably not as much as the "market rate" but still a goodly amount so that they get used to the idea of paying their way.

Pupnik

caledonian_princess wrote: »

My Mum & Dad charged me keep as soon as I got a job - I gave them a third of my take home pay. They didn't need the money and they put it away in a savings account and gave it all back to me on my 21st birthday. I had no idea they were doing this and it was a lovely surprise, my Mum told me that she knew teenagers always had better things to do with their money than save it so she thought she'd do it for me.

I don't have kids let alone teenagers but this is something I have thought about doing when the time comes- unless I actually needed the money I would not be expecting them to be paying my mortgage when it can be so hard to get enough money together for deposit/ education etc so this is a great way of giving them financial responsibility and helping them on in the world.

All families and situations are different though. When I lived at home for a while I was saving up money to pay my fees for my masters as I did not want to have to take a loan out and I did not pay rent. When my boyfriend was living at home his mum had lost her job so his rent was useful for his family. After I finished my course before I moved out/ got I job I did not have the money to pay rent but I had time to spare so I completely redecorated their living room and also did a lot of work in the garden so that I could be contributing to the household.

mountainofdebt

Our decision to charge Junior 'rent' was made after he made a career decision which has meant that he will be living at home for another year.....if he's old enough to make that sort of decision, then we took the attitude that he's old enough to contribute to the running of the household.