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player ready...Heavy snowfalls were one of my favorite events as a child. Not just because it meant village plows would heap towering, fort-worthy snow piles at the end of my block in the downstate town where I grew up, but because it also marked a return to work – for me.
In what seems like the young, capitalistic industriousness of a long-forgotten age, I would ready my coat and boots, my gloves and hat, and most importantly, my shovel. If that snow would fall on a weekend, I’d be out ringing doorbells in the morning silence when the snow had stopped, offering my services to clear walks and driveways. And if the snow would be so heavy as to cancel classes, it was especially rewarding – no school AND all day to be out making money!
Thinking back some 30 to 35 years now, this was my most lucrative, consistent income as a child. But, as I recall telling my mother at the time while no doubt lobbying for permission to participate in some other money-making opportunity, shoveling snow does tend to be seasonal work.
Oh, sure, I received a modest allowance as a child, but in hindsight clearly not sufficient to keep me in the baseball cards or the latest cassette tapes or whatever other would-be purchases seemed so vital at the time. But however much that allowance was, it clearly wasn’t enough in my estimation to prevent me from seeking out other odd jobs in the neighborhood. Suffice to say it wasn’t on the scale of what Illinois parents are apparently paying their kids these days.
That’s according to a recent survey conducted by Country Financial Services Index, the results of which showed Illinois kids to be consistently higher household earners than their kiddie counterparts across the nation.
In return for performing 12 specific chores or representative tasks in nine chore categories, Illinois youths receive a total of $42.14, according to the survey. That compares to the national average of $32.92 for the same chores, also according to the survey. No wonder our state is in financial ruin – we’re getting swindled by our kids for feeding the dog!
Chief among the fine young capitalists’ loot here in the Land of Lincoln? Mowing the lawn, checking in at an average of $9.40 per cutting, compared to the national average of $6.28. The survey didn’t indicate whether parents were also paying for the gas in the mower – as is the case at our house. And probably at yours, too.
If that’s not enough for a child, then perhaps he or she would rather clean the garage, which nets a cool $8.74 per cleaning in Illinois, well above the national average of $5.20. Or maybe the animal-loving youngsters among us would rather feed/walk/clean up after a pet, pulling in nearly double what kids do for those tasks nationwide — $5 vs. $2.66.
Also among the compared allowance amounts included in the survey, first for Illinois kids and then the national average:
*Cleaning a common area (living room, dining room or kitchen): $3.43 vs. $2.72
*Vacuuming/cleaning floors: $2.87 vs. $2.55
*Doing laundry: $2.65 vs. $2.82
*Cleaning the bedroom: $2.37 vs. $2.07
*Cleaning surfaces (dusting or washing countertops): $2.16 vs. $2.20
*Doing the dishes: $1.81 vs. $2.03
*Taking out the garbage: $1.72 vs. $1.90
*Making the bed: $1.03 vs. $1.18
*Setting the table: $0.96 vs. $1.31
I don’t know about you, but apparently cutting the grass, cleaning the garage and walking the dog are the tasks that we Illinois parents would least like to do ourselves, rewarding our children handsomely by incentivizing them to do them for us.
Equally of note are the categories where we most lag behind the national average. Perhaps we’re undervaluing our children’s help at dinner time with setting the table and doing the dishes.
Looking back on my snow shoveling days, I can say with certainty that I’d not have been nearly as motivated upon sight of every new snowfall if I’d been regularly pulling down the kind of jack that Illinois kids are today. Really, $5 for taking Fido around the block? Really?
I can tell you our kids aren’t making $42.14 in allowances at our house. Oh, sure, we pay them some for their help, but not anything on the order of what these survey results say our fellow Illinoisans apparently are. Then again, our children aren’t regularly doing all these things on this list either. If I were going to pay them for the actions they perform most regularly, they’d be rich off the bounty they’d get for complaining every time we ask them to do something. (Most of the time before eventually doing it, albeit begrudgingly.)
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How about you? What do your kids make on their allowances and how does that compare to what you earned as a child? Let us know, and perhaps we’ll revisit the topic in a future column.
Or maybe give one of your kids a couple bucks to write in for you.
Rob Manker is a freelance writer who lives and parents in Naperville.
Twitter: @RobManker