Should kids get paid for chores?
Here's the answer, applied to every job in your house.
Paid or Not Paid? Sorting Kit
One rule, every job sorted by age, and a fair number next to each one. About 20 minutes to read. Seven dollars.ย
You've had this conversation.
Possibly more than once. Possibly with the door shut so the kids couldn't hear.
Half the internet says paying for chores raises little mercenaries. The other half says unpaid chores teach kids that work is free. Both sides are loud, both have a point, and neither of them hands you anything you can use on a Tuesday when yourย eight year old wants three dollars for putting their own plate in the sink.
So you make a call in the moment. Then a different call next week. And the whole thing quietly turns into a negotiation you're losing.
Here's the rule...
"Money follows value.
You don't get paid for living here. You get paid when you make something better for someone else."
Easy to say out loud. The hard part is applying it to the forty-odd jobs that actually happenย in your home, at the age your child actually is.
That's the whole job of this kit.
The Little Builder Families
Paid or Not Paid? Sorting Kit
ย
For less than the cost of a coffee, you'll walk away with:
โ One clear rule you can say out loud tonight
โ Every job at your place sorted, priced and settled
โ An answer for your partner, and one for your kid
It takes about 20 minutes to read, and you can put it to work the same afternoon. Stick the rate card on the fridge and it keeps working without you.
What's inside:
โ The three-question test so you can rule on any job in about four seconds
โ Every job sorted across four age bands, from 2 to 3 right through to 10 plus, with the grey-zone ones called out
โ What to actually pay, by age and by job size, using 2026 Australian numbers
โ Seven ways your child can earn that have nothing to do with chores, each with a cap so it can't be farmed
โ The script for the partner who thinks kids should be paid for everything, and the one for the partner who thinks they shouldn't be paid for anything
โ The five loopholes your child will find, and the single line that closes each one
โ A blank sort sheet for your own list, and a rate card for the fridge
22 pages. Read it over a cup of tea.
What This Kit Will Help You Do:
โ Stop having the same argument every Saturday
โ Know exactly which jobs are free and which ones earn, at your child's age
โ Put a fair number next to every job that gets paid
โ Pay your kids for initiative, not just for scrubbing
โ Close the loopholes before your child finds them (and they will)
This is for you if:
๐ You've had the "should we pay for chores?" conversation more than once
๐ You and your partner don't quite agree, and you'd like something to point at
๐ You're tired of being the chore police
๐ You want your kids earning for something more useful than pushing a vacuum
One thing the Kit doesn't do.
The Kitย won't tell you how much pocket money to give, how often, or how to split it between saving, spending and giving. That's a separate decision and it isn't in here. This kit is about earning: which jobs are free, which ones pay, and what they're worth.
