Parenting Cents

Well, it’s Proposal Day.  Today is the day that I’m supposed to have proposals on my desk from our daughters, aged 5 and 9.  On the way to school this morning, G (9) was unsure of what she was going to propose, but she said she does want jobs.  Why?  “So I can earn some more money.”   It wasn’t an enthusiastic answer, but it was a positive answer.

M (5), on the other hand, has known what she wants her jobs to be since the time she was fired.  We may actually have to negotiate her down to some more manageable occupations, though, because her preliminary list contained things like “clean the entire house.”  Admittedly, she could probably clean the entire house just as well as I could…  but the quality of my work in that area wouldn’t be worth 25 cents per day either.  

Assuming we can get new jobs negotiated, each kid will have one week to use as a trial period.  They’ll have checklists next week and will be expected to complete them every day, but they won’t be paid for it.  If they do an acceptable job on their checklists for that week, then we’ll re-hire them for the following week.

I hope the girls are actually learning real-world lessons out of this.  I’m not certain that it’s all sinking in, but I think some of it is.  Regardless, they are both excellent kids who tend not to whine, complain, beg, fight, or blame.  They’re doing a great job of being great kids, and that’s what allows us to work on programs like this checklist system to help them achieve goals beyond the basics.

And if they fail to do well at their new jobs…  I’ll fire them again.