Basics are basics, extras get paid

By Felipe Saint-Jean. September 4, 2026

My kids made a PowerPoint. Not mine, actually. A dad on r/Parenting. His kids built a slide deck to argue they should be paid for their daily chores. One slide said "Ask a parenting forum." So he did. (source)

Eighty-four comments later, the thread landed where every one of these threads lands. I have read a year of them. The answer is always two lists.

The numbers, for context

Two thirds of US parents give an allowance, about $30 a week on average. Of those, 80% say the kids must earn it, and the kids spend about 5 hours a week on chores to do so. That is from a Harris Poll of 1,002 adults for the AICPA in 2019. (source)

So most families who pay do tie it to work. And most families who argue about it online say they should not. Both are true, because they are talking about different lists.

List one: basics

"Chores are just what you do to live in a household." That is the 112-point top comment. (source)

"Chores are not optional. An allowance makes it optional. It gives them the opportunity to not do chores and just not get the money." (source)

"they are not guests in a hotel, they live there." (source)

Basics are the things that exist because you exist. Your bed. Your plate. Your laundry. Your backpack. Nobody gets paid for those, and if you try, one mom warns, "They will never do anything 'for free' ever again." (source)

One parent who grew up on paid chores backs her up: "as soon as we were old enough to get jobs we did and stoped doing chores altogether." (source)

List two: extras

Here is the second half of almost every one of those same comments.

"I do have a list of extra chores that I'll pay for. I have littles so the task I have are vacuum under the couch cushions, clean baseboards, brush the dog, pick dandelions from the lawn." (source)

"I pay them to scoop the litter boxes because that's a job absolutely no one wants." (source)

"My rule is; any work that exists because of you is not for payment. So your toys all over, your bedroom, your laundry put away. That's all you. But extra things are like cleaning the baseboards or weeding my flower beds." (source)

Extras are the jobs a grown-up would otherwise do, or nobody would. They are optional. They pay. And a kid who wants something "will knock out that list." (source)

What the money is for

The parents who keep allowance separate from chores have a reason. "The purpose of an allowance is to learn how to spend wisely and how to save." (source)

And it works fast. One parent switched a 6 year old to an allowance and "anything he specifically wants he can buy himself." (source) Another: "They'd asked me for a $5 bag of candy and I said no, but when it was their money they were like FIVE DOLLARS! That's too much!" (source)

A common rate is a dollar a week per year of age. A 9 year old gets $9. (source)

Where it gets uncomfortable

Two things the research says, so you have them.

A meta-analysis of 128 studies found that expected, tangible rewards reduce a person's free-choice interest in an activity. (source) That is the science behind "they'll never do anything for free."

And a University of Minnesota study that followed 84 people into their mid-20s found that doing household tasks at age 3 or 4 was the best predictor of success later. The same write-up says kids "should not be made to do the tasks for an allowance." (source)

Both point the same way. Keep list one free.

There is a counter-view in the threads too, and it is fair: "Just like adults want to get paid, kids don't want to work for free." (source) And: "The monetary reward is crawling, but when they reach of age, they'll understand the reward is actually the feeling of accomplishment." (source)

The deal, written down

Here is the version I landed on, built from all of the above.

1. Basics are basics. Bed, plate, laundry, backpack. Not paid. Not optional.
2. Extras are on a list on the fridge, with a price next to each one. Litter box. Baseboards. Car wash. Optional. Paid.
3. Allowance is separate and small. It is for learning to spend.
4. The store is the kids' business. Whatever they earn buys what they want, with a couple of house rules. One dad's rule: 20% of earnings go to savings, gifts excluded. (source)

I got tired of keeping the list and the running balance in my head, so I built an app that does it. It is called Daily Quest. Basics can pay nothing but XP. Extras pay gold. The store is whatever I put in it, from Robux to choosing dinner. I am testing it with ten families now, and I will write up what happens, including if the PowerPoint kids were right.

Until then, two lists. It is what wins every thread.

More about Daily Quest