POCKET-MONEY

Waikato Independent, Volume XXXVI, Issue 3421, 18 February 1936, Page 6

POCKET-MONEY

HOW MUCH SHOULD A CHILD RECEIVE ?

What pocket-money should children receive ?

Should they work at certain tasks to earn it ? Should they be free to spend it as they please, or is it wiser that the spending be directed by their parents ?

These questions, constantly presenting themselves, writes a contributor to a Melbourne journal, are more than ever to the fore in the holidays, when children have so many wants, and the parents’ purse seems more than ever slender, If the family is a one-child family* there is not much difficulty; but if several children are making constant demands, be it even for trifles, a parent needs to be a careful organiser.

Not every child receives pocketmoney. A great many have not even a penny to spend. Things may be bought for them, sweets may be given to them, they may not even realise their need, but they are certainly not on a par with a little boy who has a coin of his own.

It may be argued that as so many country children do not have occasion to visit shops, there is no need for them to be given pocket-money. It still seems fair to me that they have something that they may call their own. It can be put away and used when the oppoi'tunity arrives. Country children do a good deal of hard work, and most surely earn what may be given them. It is right that it should be regular in amount and the time of payment. If a small child is to be allowed three pennyworth of sweets a week, he should be expected to get them out of his own pocket money and no more. His. pocket money should be just enough to cover the natural desires (the amount considered legitimate by his parents). No hard and fast rule could be possibly laid down, except that children of nearly the same age in a family should be treated alike, no one child receiving more or relatively more than another, unless, of course, he does some special task to earn a large sum. Every child should do some work in the house. His money need not be regarded as payment for that work, rather should his work seem to him a natural return, a recognition of that which is given. No one wants the relation of employer and employee in the family circle, and the remarks I have often heard from children, “it’s mine, I earned it,” in justification of their spending is not always spoken happily. If with young children, the sum they handle is only for their own amusement or for sweets, they should be free to spend it their own way. They will soon learn, if they are helped without too much advice or criticism, not to use it all up in the first day or two. There is no better or more practical way for them to learn judgment, control and self-reliaace.