My Sons’ room is a mess.
My Daughter is very good at organizing and cleaning.
She made an offer to her brothers, to clean their room for $50. She dropped it to $40 when Youngest said he didn’t have enough money.
Agreement was made, and she’s cleaning their room. Isn’t taking her long, and she’s getting $40 for it. Pretty decent rate of pay.
Wife is a little unsure about this arrangement, but I’m fine with it. Why? Because they are learning a lot.
Daughter is saving money to buy new cymbals for her drums. The cheapest cymbal pack, plus stands and so on? It’s going to run her at least $400, so she’s got a way to go…. but she just made 10% of it. 🙂 She’s setting goals, she’s working towards them. She’s seeing things she wants in life, and tho the kids know I’m willing to loan them money (with interest, of course… everything is a lesson), she refuses to do that because she’s learned that debt is generally to be avoided, especially for non-essentials in life. She’s being resourceful, looking for ways to earn more money, sooner. She’s not afraid of work. I also gave her more lessons in negotiation, which she didn’t have to use with her brothers, but she was enabled with just in case.
The Boys are learning the value of money and time. The landscaping I want in my yard? Sure I could do it and save a lot of money, but it’ll cost me a lot of time, and what else could I be doing with that time? And so, that’s what the boys are seeing… plus it means they don’t have to do something they find unpleasant. But, they’ll learn the bigger lesson when they realize they farted away their time, and also gave up a nice chunk of their money that they now don’t have for other things. But, it’s their money and their time, and they have to learn how to spend them wisely. Perhaps the $20 (each) was a worthwhile tradeoff, because I’ve seen how they clean their room… this way is certainly faster with a lot less complaining and more peace in the household. 😉
Whether good lessons or bad lessons, they are lessons and there are things to be learned.
Stuff From Hsoi 
One of my core principles is “find a way to get paid to do the things you like to do, so you can pay other people to do the things you have to get done, but don’t like to do.” If there are a lot of things that have to get done that you don’t like to do, well, that’s motivation to get good enough at something you like that you can get paid to do it – or find something that pays well that you are good at, that you hate less than the tasks you are paying others to do for you.
Amen to that.
Tho, I don’t think Daughter likes to clean rooms… she just knows it was a good means to an end. Cymbals are important to her. 🙂
Hsoi,
Another lesson learned is that they don’t need a intrusive governing body running their lives — their money, their time. As long as no laws or household rules are broken, you seem to be staying out of it.
Not a bad life lesson
Indeed. I had thought about something similar to that but it escaped me as I was writing.
They were two willing parties engaging in lawful commerce. No one got hurt. Nothing bad was happening. It was all good.
Wife’s only objection is that the Boys can’t use this as their constant recourse… they DO need to keep a clean room, they DO need to clean it. I don’t deny that. 🙂 Under normal circumstances I would rather encourage the Boys to take care of things on their own. But we’ve got company coming and need the house in order quickly, so there we go.