On this week’s ‘Parenting’ segment, one father asked if he should be giving his son pocket money for doing jobs around the house.

“My 10-year-old is mad to do jobs to earn some pocket money, doing bits of gardening, helping on the farm, cutting hedges, painting gates, you name it,” he told Moncrieff.

“The trouble is this: my wife feels we shouldn't be paying him anything to help out around the place - that he should do jobs as part of his contribution to the household.”

This father said that his wife grew up on her father’s farm in the 80s and 90s and was never given pocket money for helping out – so she doesn’t think their son should get it.

“I feel really bad about this,” he said.

“I find pocket money a way to encourage and motivate him to get out in the fresh air and do outdoor activities rather than being inside playing video games.

“I have taken to slipping him a €20 note here and there - but it feels too cloak and dagger.

“What's your advice regarding pocket money?”

A child holding money and a black wallet. Image: Alamy

Family psychotherapist Joanna Fortune said giving the child random €20 notes will develop a secrecy between the child, his mother and his father.

“I mean, I think pocket money is a great way to develop financial literacy, to start to develop budgeting skills, as well as give them more independence,” she said.

“I think it's a great way to start those skills - I don't expect 10-year-olds to be balancing the family books or doing anything like that.”

"Just part of being in a family"

Joanna said she agrees that there should be a set chore per day or a couple of chores per week that children are not ‘paid’ for.

“That's just part of being in a family is that everybody helps out and everybody contributes,” she said.

“But given this little guy is looking, and in quite an industrious way, to help out, to take on jobs - he's looking to earn money, rather than just be given or slipped €20.

“I also think kids benefit from doing their set chores that they're not paid for and then having additional things they can do that they are paid for and whatever pocket money we give.”

Make it clear what it's for

Joanna said she believes that it’s important to make it clear about what the money your kids are given is for.

“So if you link pocket money at home to chores or it's simply money you give your kids, regardless of whether they do chores or not, be very clear about what that money is supposed to cover, what you expect from them,” she said.

“With older kids, you might be giving them more money, but you expect them to cover their own phone costs, you expect them to cover toiletries.

“With a younger child, you expect him to save a percentage of that to develop those skills.

“The amount you give should be commensurate, obviously, with that and appropriate for his age.”

Image via Pixabay

Joanna said it is important to help children understand the concept of saving.

“It develops a healthy skill that no matter how much money you're earning, you automatically save something,” she said.

“If there's a holiday or something coming up and you want them to be able to buy treats for themselves when they are away, you remind them we've got this event coming, make sure you save some of your money.

"A goal in mind"

If a child has something they are saving for in mind, you also need to make sure it’s appropriate, Joanna said.

“I think if a child at 10, like this letter said, is mad to do jobs to earn money, I immediately think that child does have a goal in mind,” she said.

“Just make sure that something your child wants is something you're happy for them to have - because once they're buying it with their money, it's hard for you to be going, ‘Oh, well, I don't want you to have that’.”

Joanna said, however, she thinks the initiative this little boy is showing is admirable.

Listen back here:

Child counting pocket money. Image: Alliance / Alamy Stock Photo