Mum Pays Kid £4.50 to do Chores” 🤔😳Right or Wrong?

This has challenged and concerned me for many years as a dad of two. Now, there's an article that's just gone live in the UK media where a mum pays her daughter, who's 9 years old, £4.50 a week to do chores. And as someone who has written the UK's best-selling book on money called Money— well, that's according to my publishers anyway, maybe they're just trying to pump my ego, but that's what they say. I've all— I'm also nearly 250 episodes in of my money podcast. I have 2 children, 10 and 6, and I want to raise them to be independent, entrepreneurial, even if they don't become an entrepreneur. And so I've often thought about this. So please stay with me and let me know your thoughts in the comments. I want to get a discussion going. Let me first just give you the update on what this mother is doing. Um, so a mum who is a pharmacy support worker is paying her daughter, who's 9 years old, £4.50 a week to do chores. So she pays her to tidy her room, put the dirty washing away, um, and also, this is an interesting one, she'll pay her if she's ready for school on time. Now, any of you who are a parent will know that if you can get your kids ready for school on time, you're basically Einstein and you figured out the meaning of life and you know everything about life, because it is the hardest thing in the world to get your freaking kids ready on time. Oh my life, everything just goes to shit at 7:25 in the morning. It's funny because my wife and I, we get up earlier and earlier. You could get up at 1 in the morning having 2 hours sleep and you still won't get them out of the freaking house on time. So Is there an argument for an incentive and a reward? Look, some people don't really like the reward-punishment. They think it's old school, but human beings do work on reward and punishment, carrot and stick. And sometimes some of the best thing you can do for your children is to actually discipline them. I'm not saying with the iron fist or the back of the hand, but, you know, discipline actually does equal freedom, and children need their boundaries blocked. They need discipline. Anyway, so back in the game. So mum, who has a daughter who's 9, pays her to do chores at £4.50 a week, including dirty washing away, tidying the bedroom, brushing her teeth, and getting ready for school without being prompted. What do you think about that? Do you think, one, that's a really great thing because it can teach them about how the world works in money i.e., you do good work, you get rewards. Or 2, do you think that's ridiculous because she should not be getting paid to do chores, she should be doing chores anyway? Now, um, this daughter is called Darcy and she's not spent the money yet and she's saved £200 and she's saving it up for a smart TV. Now, the next thing her mum needs to teach her is a TV goes down in value, not up in value. And a TV can ruin your life, but personal development and, you know, maybe podcasts and YouTube influencers— self-education will make you a— no, traditional education will make you a living, self-education will make you a fortune. Okay, so here's something interesting to add to this mix, and like I said, let me know what you think in the comments. Um, Caleb Maddox, who became quite, um, an influential creator on social media at quite a young age, said that his dad made him do chores. You have to do chores. It's just part of your responsibility of growing up. There's no way you're getting paid to do chores. My dad didn't pay me to do chores. I mean, it was pretty simple with my dad. If I didn't do chores, I got a beating. I, I, I probably shouldn't say this, but I'm going to say it. But, you know, I remember one day my dad hit me so hard I wet my pants. I wet myself. Now look, I, you know, that was how it was back then. I'm not You know, my dad wasn't abused or anything like that. I love my dad. I respect his strength. But has maybe, uh, the world gone around the other way and a bit too soft? Anyway, so what Caleb Maddox's dad did was said, no, you pay your chores. That's it. That's the rules. You pay your chores. You, you know, you earn your upkeep. You're living in this house rent-free. You do your chores. But what he said was, I'll pay you $50 for every personal development book you read. And that for me was a mic drop. Like, imagine if your child read one positive personal development or educational book a week. Imagine how smart they'd be by age 15. Imagine how much they'd know how to handle their emotions and the difficult world out there. And they'd be entrepreneurial and solution-focused and managing their emotions. So I thought that was a bit of genius. So my question to you is, should children be paid to do chores like, um, Jordan Goodwill, who's 31, is? She's paying her daughter, who's 9, £4.50 a week to tidy her room and get ready for school on time and put the dirty washing away. Should children get paid for that? Because you could argue it teaches them to earn for work, and the world, the world pays you when you work, and the more valuable work you do, the more the world pays you. You Yes, I have kids, by the way. I have 2 kids, 10 and 7. I don't talk about things I know nothing about, just so you know. And my kids are at the age now where I'm teaching them some personal development. I'm teaching them about money. I actually sometimes do lives with them and moving them into this mysterious world of social media. Um, so option 1, you pay them to do the chores. Option 2: you don't pay them to do the chores. They should freaking well do the chores. But you pay them $50 or £20 or whatever each time they do something enterprising and entrepreneurial. So for example, you could pay your kids to list stuff on eBay and teach them how to use eBay and Depop. You could set up a little e-com business with them and pay them for hitting certain benchmarks. Or as Caleb Maddox's dad did for him, which I thought was absolutely genius, You have to do your blooming chores because that's, you know, this is not a free ride here, you know. But they get paid $50 for every personal development or educational book that they read. Now what's interesting here is Darcy, who's Jordan Goodwill's mum, has pocketed £200 by completing her weekly chores and has been saving it all and has even been selling her old toys and has put the money into her GoHenry account. So GoHenry is quite a good educational account for children. I'd love your thoughts on that. Some people think it's great, some, some people think it's not. But as a kid of 9, to save up £200 and to get the lessons of progression through working and selling things you don't need as a target— now, all right, it'd be nice if the smart TV wasn't the target, but I actually think there's a lot of merit in that. Okay, so let me know what you think in the comments, but Please hit the share button as well if you're watching in on the lives. And by the way, if you listen to me on my podcast or on Clubhouse, make sure you do follow me on my channels where you can engage with me. So for example, on Facebook, I do lives on Facebook, or on TikTok, I do lives on TikTok, and I can actually see and read your comments. Um, quick summary then. This is the discussion point I want to raise. Um, it's just been in the news in the UK where mum who's 31, who's a pharmacy support worker, pays her daughter 9 to do chores because she believes it teaches her to save money. Although, should we be teaching them to save money or should we be teaching them to invest money? Cash is trash, inflation is high. Maybe we should be teaching them that as well, but maybe 9 is too young. Anyway, so, um, the, the young 9-year-old who's called Darcy, she gets paid for what? Putting the dirty washing away, cleaning her bedroom, getting ready for school in time. By the way, I'd pay my kids £100 a minute if they were ready for school on time. Oh my Gah, our life would be a lot better. Darcy hasn't spent any of the money yet. She saved the 200 quid. She's completed her task. She's selling her old toys on eBay. She's got a GoHenry account, and she's saving up for a smart TV, all aged 9. What do you think about that? Is that something that we can model, or would you take the Caleb Maddox dad approach? And that is, you're not getting paid for any chores, you've just got to do them. Just man up, woman up, and do them. But you read a personal development book, you read an educational book, I'll pay you 50 $50 for every book. Like, if my two kids, 10 and 7, read one personal development book a week, that's 52 in a year. That's probably more than most adults have read in their life. I think that's powerful. Anyway, let me know what you think in the comments. Hit the share button. Thanks for tuning in. If you're watching on my TikTok Live, make sure you're following me. If you don't follow me on TikTok, you won't get notified when I go live. Um, if you're watching on my Facebook Live, please hit the share button. And remember this: if you don't risk anything, you risk everything.