Allowances and younger siblings

[SusanBAnthony]

DS gets 5$ a week of allowance. He only actually gets it about half the time due to just being busy, traveling, forgetting, etc. but it is a decent enough amount of money that he can buy himself things he wants. He is more of a saver, he has about 35$ in his wallet right now. He started getting it when he turned 5. Dd is almost 3 and doesn't get an allowance yet.

Ds frequently wants stuff, and I tell him he is welcome to buy it with his own money. He is fine with that. The problem, is that dd wants whatever it is, too, and wants to spend her money knit. Except, she has no money. I think she is too young to have her own money. I don't want to buy her stuff just because, but I also don't think it very fair for her to watch DS get to buy stuff, and she can't. At the moment the issue is a watch. Dd is too young for a watch, but brother has one, and she wants one desperately. He is buying himself one and she really wants one. It was just christmas so she has tons of new stuff. Ad her bday is in 7 weeks. But to a 2 year old, none of that matters. And she won't forget about it or be distracted, either!

Wwyd in this specific case, and how would you handle it in general?

[h]

We don't do allowances, but our kids do get money for various reasons. Most recently we gave them each money to spend on souvenirs of their choice on vacation. We gave our 2 yo money just as we did our 5 yo for the reasons you mentioned--we knew he would want to buy what his brother was buying, and it seemed unfair not to let DS2 shop. He did fine with it. He understands what money is and that spending your money on one thing means not having enough money to buy something else, so I don't know that I think 3 yo is really too early for a child to have small amounts of his or her own money. I think in your situation I would do something like $1 per year of age and give your DD a $3 allowance.

[curbsideprophet]

I read somewhere that if a child is old enough to start asking for things they are old enough for a small allowance. You may only start out with a quarter if they are not really old enough to handle/ not lose it.

[SusanBAnthony]

I am glad I asked, bc I totally though dd was too young, but maybe I need to re-evaluate that. She would love to get an allowance like DS, and it would solve the problem. Thanks!

[Deleted]

Do they have to earn the allowance or is it just free money? If she's old enough to help with any basic chores, I think she can earn an allowance.

[dragonfly08]

DD #1 is 9 and DD #2 is 6. #1 gets allowance, #2 does not yet.

As far as "buying things", there are plenty of other opportunities for #2 to earn money for that. If she's especially good/helpful at home, DH or I might hand her a dollar. She gets to keep some of her birthday and holiday gift money for spending while the rest gets banked. And she knows that we pay for her school lunches, while #1 is responsible for doing that herself out of her allowance (so it's not like #1 is saving scads of money and buying all kinds of expensive stuff #2 isn't getting).

It works out, and is rarely a problem unless #2 really wants something specific. In that case we figure out a way for her to earn it or, if her birthday/a holiday is coming up she gets it then.

[GailGoldie]

we haven't started allowances yet - mostly b/c they haven't shown a huge interest in money other than putting it into our big Disney savings bank - so for now when they get coins/dollars here and there- they run to put it in the disney bank (we told them we'll go to disney again when it's filled... it's huge- so it will take a long time, likely until May when we are actually going but they don't know)

younger sibings are going to want to start things younger than the oldest did- so if she's showing interest I'd give her a smaller allowance.