Need some advice dear Parents:
I have a 7 year old son. For the past year or so, me and my wife have been giving him money when he helps clean or does something in the house and he really enjoys it and has a piggy bank where he saves it. If he helps his mum clean dishes - £1, if he cleans his room we give him £2 or so. He saved up about £25 and bought the FIFA12 game for his PS3 himself. He is saving now for LEGO Batman2 which will be out later this month, will cost £34, and he has about £15 at the moment, and he is excited about it, calculating how much more he needs. I come from work and he goes 'dad, just cleaned my room, come have a look, everything is in place'. I just thought its a good way to make him appreciate money.

Now....

My good friend from secondary school days who happens to be an assistant pastor in one of the Redeemed churches came to see me last week, and I was just telling him about this. His response kind of suprised me. His line of thought was

-It is wrong to do that.
-You are teaching him to depend on the system of this world to be his source and not God
-You are teaching him to love money, and the love of money is the root of all evil

Told my wife later and she got pissed off, told me not to listen to that rubbish!
What do my fellow parents think. Is this wrong? Could it have an effect on his outlook on money in the future?

no. teach them the value of money and how to invest...
never teach them to worship the money...no money is worth them losing their souls over.

@ op what you are doing is right. Your pastor is not giving you good advice. YOur son needs to know the value of money and how you are going about it is correct. Please dont stop, the only thing you need to stop doing is listening to that pastor. Probably wants you to not give the kid money so you can increase your weekly offering.

It is right to teach your child the value of money. However, you are going about it the wrong way. The big risk in your current approach is what psychologists call "crowding-out intrinsic motivation". Specifically, by offering monetary incentives for your son to perform basic household chores that any child would be expected to do, you run the risk of having him perform these tasks only when there is $$$ involved. This is not a good way to train a child. Your child should be performing household chores without expecting any payment.

A better way to teach your son the value of money is to perhaps just give him pocket money every week and have him use the money to save up for something special. It'll have the same effects without the "crowding-out" problem.

PS - I am afraid that your pastor gave you VERY terrible advice. My Bible tells me that a man that doesn't work must not eat. It also tells me that there is a time to plant and a time to harvest. You can't possibly teach your son to wait for manna from heaven.

@OP
I am sorry to say that I don't believe in what you are doing. Children should help their parents and they shouldn't be rewarded for "that"........ I can see many reasons why I would give pocket money to my kids but making their own rooms and helping with the dishes ain't one of them. Are you saying that your kids wouldn't do their own rooms, or help their mum with the dishes, if they ain't got paid for it?!

IMHO that is a very wrong signal to send to children. These are their normal duties, and they should do them regardless of being paid or not.....now if you are talking about mowing the lawn or washing the cars, then thats another subject all together.

Yes children should know the value of money but handing it to them for doing something that they are suppose to do is not teaching them anything at all...... In the contrary.

braveheart2012: It is right to teach your child the value of money. However, you are going about it the wrong way. The big risk in your current approach is what psychologists call "crowding-out intrinsic motivation". Specifically, by offering monetary incentives for your son to perform basic household chores that any child would be expected to do, you run the risk of having him perform these tasks only when there is $$$ involved. This is not a good way to train a child. Your child should be performing household chores without expecting any payment.

A better way to teach your son the value of money is to perhaps just give him pocket money every week and have him use the money to save up for something special. It'll have the same effects without the "crowding-out" problem.

PS - I am afraid that your pastor gave you VERY terrible advice. My Bible tells me that a man that doesn't work must not eat. It also tells me that there is a time to plant and a time to harvest. You can't possibly teach your son to wait for manna from heaven.

Thanks for the reply, I totally agree, and did not see it this way. i think I will take your advice and change to the weekly pocket money method.

It is absolutely right..I agree..47vids.com

Without any doubt.

@op, i will say that what you are doing is in no way a bad idea, plz dont listen to those asking you to stop. What you are doing is making your son a responsible economist. Yes: giving him money in exchange for his chores at home is not wrong, what is wrong is if you do this too frequently. No matter how young he is, once u let him know that you are giving him this money for him to save and no exactly in payment for his neccesary chores, the better. You will also need to check his choice of expenditure. You are simply training your son on the same thing he will learn in school someday, just don't over do it and let time take its effect on his mental capacity. Firthermore, for those arguing on the contrary, what will they say abt kids who have things still done for them like even cleaning their rooms and still turn out well!

You don't have to teach that, is wrong. Teach them to be creative in their approach to things and life, then they will know what money is and can do.

There are so many roads that leads to the market its left for you to find the best way for you. I think you are doing what you believe is best for your child he will learn that there is no food for the lazy man and appreciate hard work. But you start giving him the so call pocket money for doing nothing i tell you laziness will set in he will say to himself if i can get money for free what's the need to work.Don't allow your child to grow up with the Nigerian civil servants mentality.

Your pastor friend is saying total rubbish. He probably encourages worshippers in his church to pray, drop the little they have as 'offerings' and expect money to fall on their laps instead of investing same in skills acquisition for gainful employment or successful business ownership. A problem I find common in preachers these days.

To your system of rewarding your kid for workdone, i was gonna say it is a good system until braveheart brought more perspective. As he said, as we try to encourage hardwork by incentives, we should draw a clear distiction between one's own responsibility and additional workdone.

capital wrong.

I advise you get the book 'Rich Dad Poor Dad' by Robert Kiyosaki and the series that follow it. It is a good thing that you teach your child financial literacy at this age, since it is not taught in the schools. When you read these books and more, you will learn how to teach your child to make money work for him instead of working for money. Also be careful of who you listen to for advice, because many people hide under the guise of spirituality to cover up for their ignorance and deficiences in confronting the realities of life. Cheers.

Bro ur pastor has something up his sleeve...I dnt support his advice at all....my Dad has Chess,scrabble and Monopoly...he taught me how to play them when I was young...Today I can make wise business decisions because of monopoly..planning to start my own business and I am still a student plus I came 2nd in a scrabble competition when I was in secondary school so u can see τ̲̅ђε̲̣̣̣̥ benefits of having Parents teach their kids...Parents are there to guide and nurture Children so dnt be surprised that your Child can be τ̲̅ђε̲̣̣̣̥ next Dangote...just set boundaries btw τ̲̅ђε̲̣̣̣̥ love of money and how to use money effectively..peace

The earlier you teach your child to appreciate money the better.

Ignorance of the power of money as a game changer and the dynamics of financial management is the major reason of poverty and failures in human enterprise.

I opened my first savings account at 12 and stopped collecting money from my parents at 18.

Its a very good thing.i started saving from pry 4,then my parents used to give me #20 to school and now its part of me.i cant spend #1 unless its something useful.now everybody wants to be like me.my friends keep begging me to teach them how to save.

What I will suggest a cautious approach. Yes, you are on the right part in terms of teaching Ɣ☺U̶̲̥̅̊я kid economics. But I will suggest that you gradually tune him away from getting incentives for daily chores- which he has probably gotten used to now-and set him on higher tasks like getting paid in doing well in academics and service rendered to other people outside the home.

ikechukz: Its a very good thing.i started saving from pry 4,then my parents used to give me #20 to school and now its part of me.i cant spend #1 unless its something useful.now everybody wants to be like me.my friends keep begging me to teach them how to save.

U dint say how much u've saved from then till now?

Idi-Amin:
Need some advice dear Parents:
I have a 7 year old son. For the past year or so, me and my wife have been giving him money when he helps clean or does something in the house and he really enjoys it and has a piggy bank where he saves it. If he helps his mum clean dishes - £1, if he cleans his room we give him £2 or so. He saved up about £25 and bought the FIFA12 game for his PS3 himself. He is saving now for LEGO Batman2 which will be out later this month, will cost £34, and he has about £15 at the moment, and he is excited about it, calculating how much more he needs. I come from work and he goes 'dad, just cleaned my room, come have a look, everything is in place'. I just thought its a good way to make him appreciate money.

Now....

My good friend from secondary school days who happens to be an assistant pastor in one of the Redeemed churches came to see me last week, and I was just telling him about this. His response kind of suprised me. His line of thought was

-It is wrong to do that.
-You are teaching him to depend on the system of this world to be his source and not God
-You are teaching him to love money, and the love of money is the root of all evil

Told my wife later and she got pissed off, told me not to listen to that rubbish!
What do my fellow parents think. Is this wrong? Could it have an effect on his outlook on money in the future?

The real problem here is that you're completely spoiling the child.

No child should be paid just to clean up his own home.

First of all, i commend you and your wife for having the mind to raise your son to learn to work for what he wants and not wait for the world to hand things to him. I however agree with people who have said that you should be careful about paying your son to help out in the house, as he should anyway. But i wouldn't totally fault what the pastor said - your son could indeed grow up to have an undue love for money where he would refuse to do things or be kind to be people if there's 'nothing' in it for him. Right now, he is learning to pursue instant gratification and he is eager to tell you he cleaned up his room just because he knows he will get paid. I like the idea of giving him pocket money on a weekly/ biweekly/ monthly basis while continuing to educate him about saving towards the things he likes. I like you guys though, you are forward thinking parents! You have the right intentions, your son will learn responsibility real fast. But train him to have a heart too, to sometimes help out just because he can, not because he will get paid.

And i should add.... if you go by the pocket money method, regulate it and drive home the discipline by giving him a tiny tad more when he used the previous amounts wisely and giving him less when he doesnt spend it well. All in all, it shouldnt be much money at all... just a small amount to get a message across, after all your point is not to make him rich or fend for himself at this point.

i'd rather suggest you give him money because he needs it and not because he does house chores...if he needs ps3 or any other game,you as his father should buy it for him rather than giving him money when he does house chores.
I feel it is spoilin the child

agiboma: @ op what you are doing is right. Your pastor is not giving you good advice. YOur son needs to know the value of money and how you are going about it is correct. Please dont stop, the only thing you need to stop doing is listening to that pastor. Probably wants you to not give the kid money so you can increase your weekly offering.

hehehehehehe#weekly offering!

Nawa for all these pastors.@op...continue with it.I believe it makes him more prudent.