My 4-years old daughter recently started to ask for ways to earn money. I think this comes from watching the Duck Tales cartoons with Scrooge McDuck swimming in money, but she was interested in it earlier than that.
While there's plenty of ideas about it on the web it mostly falls into three categories or a mix of them:
- Actually earning money by doing something like garage sell, starting a blog, youtube channel & etc. I don't think 4 years is the right age for that.
- Unconditional monthly/weekly allowance. Just giving some amount of money each month/week.
- Paying for chores, keeping the room clean & etc.
I believe that putting the toys away, keeping the room clean, helping out parents with chores, doing exercise, or homework should be normal and shouldn't be rewarded.
Right now I'm thinking about a mix of 2 and 3, where she starts with an amount each week (let's say 10$, the amount is just for example). And then based on her "performance" during the week, the amount can get grow or decrease. For example, for every tantrum she throws minus 20c, if the room is clean at the end of the day +30c.
However, independently on her "performance", she gets at least 3$. So she can't end-up getting nothing. What do you think about this approach?
Please also share your approaches, I'm open to any suggestions.