So today’s the day for barnbidrag (monthly child allowance from the government — all families with children receive this stipend, regardless of their income), which means that it’s also allowance day for Lydia. It’s come to my attention recently that there’s a fairly considerable disparity between Lydia’s allowance and her peers’ allowances, and I’m a little uncomfortable about that. It turns out that most of Lydia’s friends get a weekly allowance of 20kr (about two dollars) and that they have to buy their own Saturday candy (a venerable Swedish tradition) out of this money. Lydia, on the other hand, has a monthly allowance of 150kr (about fifteen or twenty dollars, depending on exchange rates), and we buy her candy for her. I’m not quite sure what, if anything, I should do about this. It doesn’t seem fair to cut her allowance by more than half (once candy-buying is factored in) in some sort of reverse “keeping up with the Joneses” maneuver, but I don’t want to make a conspicuous consumer out of my daughter, either. I guess maybe I just won’t do anything except be a little wiser when it comes to setting allowances in the future.
Since it is a payday of sorts, I’m trying to talk Olof into taking a couple of hours off and driving to town with me to do some grocery shopping. It’s a nice day and I’d like to get out and about, especially since it’s supposed to be nasty for several days starting tomorrow. Also, it’s nice to go grocery shopping without Lydia wanting to load up the cart with chips and cookies and Coke and whatnot. She doesn’t nag, exactly–that is, one “no” usually suffices, but it’s one “no” per item rather than one all-encompassing “no” that she requires–but it’s nice to avoiding the asking altogether.
I hate to take my kiddos shopping too.
As parents, we’re pretty much ‘falling down on the job’ when it comes to allowances here. I know it’s important to my hubby, but I’m the one who has to execute it all. I had a small allowance as a child, of which I had to buy my own candy on Saturday and half had to go to the church. Then the allowance thing stopped all together until I was about 16 – then my mom gave me my part of the govt family allowance ($20CDN/month). I had to buy my own clothes & stuff with that money. If I needed extra, I had to babysit.
I think allowances here in Canada are pretty extreme. I have no idea what it is for a 7 year old – I think some kids get anywhere from $10 – $20 a week. Then there are poor folk like myself who thinks $2 is more than enough. My daughter is loathe to spend her money – so we usually get candy and stuff for her. Sigh – it’s a tough job!
C will turn 7 this April, and he gets 15 kr/week in allowance – when we remember to give it to him or when the remembers to ask for it. 🙂
He doesn’t care much, so it’s fine. When he gets it, he wants it in “1-kronor” because he has a “tube” on his wall that he puts them in, to save them. He’s good at saving – he usually ends up with about 100 kr and then buys something for it; a new car or a dinosaur or something. But like I said, it’s no big deal for him at this point. Maybe it’ll change when he starts school this fall, I don’t know.
His brother, who’ll be 11 this May, gets 30 kr/week. But it’s not a very big deal to him either.
Right now they are both saving all their cash together, to buy a PlayStation II.
I don’t know, this whole thing is difficult. I never really had an allowance when I was a kid, not until I was in like 7th grade or something. Then I got the whole “barnbidrag” and had to buy my own clothes etc.
With my kids, I give them my “change” to put in that savings jar they have right now, and I buy them clothes or things when I can and want to. I don’t have a lot of money, and add to that a very irregular income, so when I do have it I love spending extra money on the boys.
Sigh. I’m just babbling here, I’m tired. I’ll shut up now. 🙂
Our allowance was always a bit larger than the going rate, but 10% of it was to given to church or some charity (like the Salvation Army buckets at Xmas) and 15% was to be saved for university or car or some large future expense.
We also had to use the money for hot lunches or make them ourselves and it was expected that any clothing outside of the basics would be paid by us. It was the 80’s so expensive label name clothes were all the rage – it drove my parents nuts to pay $50 for jeans with Gloria Vanderbuilt’s signature on them.
Maybe you could institute a savings program? A special trip she wants to take or big ticket item?