ALLOWANCE

Allowance
A regular, predictable amount of money in the form of an allowance is one of the most worthwhile educational experiences parents can provide their children. As a child learns the possibilities and limitations of his allowance and as his needs multiply, the amount of the allowance can be increased.
What is an Allowance?
An allowance, in the true sense of the word, is a child’s shareof the family income, and it should be an amount no larger than the family can afford. It should be considered the child’s to do with as he pleases; it should never be withheld because of disobedience, poor grades, or unwise spending. An allowance is never a bargaining tool to guarantee a child’s good behavior.
His allowance will give a child a realistic, firsthand experience in planning how hismoney his to be spent and how to get full value for what he spends. It will provide a natural place to learn arithmetic, an area in which he has to use logic, and it will eventually show him that sometimes a pleasure postponed is a pleasure increased. The child will make mistakes or buy unwisely at first. He may rush to spend all his money the minute he gets it, forgetting that no more will beforthcoming for several days. From such unwise haste, however, he will learn to be selective in his purchases and prudent in his spending.
When to Begin an Allowance and How Much
Sometime around his fifth birthday your child may ask you for an allowance such as his friends or his older brothers and sisters enjoy. Or he may have driven you to consideration of the necessity for an allowance by thedaily demand process. You may wish to start him on a 10-cents-a-week allowance, but a nickel twice a week may prove a blessing to the child who finds a week unbearably long. The word “allowance” implies a margin of choice. A child will soon figure out that he can have two candy bars this week, or he can save his allowance for two weeks and buy a toy airplane, but he cannot have both candy and toy.By the time a child enters school, if he has managed his own allowance for a year or so, he is ready to take on the additional responsibility of managing money he will need for school expenses bus fare, supplies, lunches, or milk money. The family council offers a good opportunity to discuss what a child is expected to do with his newly increased allowance. Experiences of older brothers andsisters often will be valuable to him as he estimates his weekly requirements.
Some Spend, Some Save
Each child is different. Each handles money not only according to the kind of person he is, but also according to what money has come to mean to him. Is your child one of these?
The efficiency expert. This child can handle good-sized sums of money, planning in advance for haircuts, piano lessons, hissavings program, and his daily expenses, both school and social. He keeps a record of the money he gets as an allowance, money he earns, and money he spends. He totals the columns weekly and always balances his accounts. He is apt to grow stuffy about his financial genius it would not hurt him to learn about some of the deeper values of money.
The hoarder. This child saves his money just forthe sake of seeing the pile get bigger or the piggy bank get heavier. Such hoarding is not always healthy. If a child is saving for a specific purpose, his thrift is commendable. If, however, hoarding is done with a miserly attitude or because of feelings of insecurity, he needs more education about what money is really for: to exchange for something that contributes to his own or another’shappiness and well-being.
The spendthrift. This youngster spends his week’s allowance the minute he gets it. He may spend it all on himself or he may rashly treat his friends. He, too, need parental guidance to curb his impetuosity. If he is “buying friendships,” he may need your help in straightening out his values.
The borrower. This child spends all his money and then remembers that he has made...