An Allowance For Kids The World Over

The very idea of an allowance for kids would be considered a joke over a very large part of the world. Children are expected to make themselves useful, as soon as they can walk. They are sent to work as soon as they are old enough and what money they earn is added to the family coffers. If they are lucky the only allowance they may expect will be time off to attend school, so that their earning power may be increased.

Another reality is the kind of parent who wants to get the child out of the house for some reason. He will fling some notes, sometimes quite a substantial amount, in the direction of his offspring, and tell him to get out of the way.

Yet another kind of payment is given to the spoilt rich kid who may be given more and more, the more useless and frustrated he comes. The victims of such allowances may be found playing with toys still at middle age if they have survived that long without becoming the victims of motor accidents.

In the days of the British Empire some rich kids found themselves in trouble with servants, or with experienced gamblers. To spare family embarrassment they would be sent out to the colonies.

There they would shoot animals, and probably relapse into similar vices that had caused the trouble in the first place. They were regarded with suspicion by other colonials because they did not have to work. Some died as alcoholics in dirty huts, and others found the fresh colonial air agreeable, put their remittances to good account and regained respectability. They may be seen in old photographs, staring haughtily at the camera as though daring it to challenge their right to remittances.

In between these two extremes are the middle classes, the bourgeoisie, the professional people. They calculate carefully how much a child will need at every stage of his life up until he becomes independent and works for himself. Then they pay monthly, just a little bit more than is needed at each age so that the child can learn the exact value of money and save for the future.

Such are the people who make up the backbone of society, living ordered, sensible lives. Allowances for kids fit into the pattern for them.

By: Shane Stowing

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Derrick Janson is an expert in Teaching Kids About Money. He has taught about allowance for kids topics, budgeting, saving money and making money for kids.