Do your kids complain about their pocket money rates? You need to show them this photo.
Stephanie Chappe, 31, posted this memo on Reddit, detailing the rigid pocket money rules her dad Richard put in place when she and her three sisters were growing up.
The document, signed and dated by every member of the Chicago family, outlines in great detail the careless or mean behaviours that saw each daughter's payment cut back. The sanctions are:
1. Miss bus, but tried to make it: $1 - Next time you'll try a little harder!
2. Miss bus by a mile: $2 - You should have at least tried to make the bus!
3. Major argument or fight in the morning about going to school: $5 - A definite no-no!
4. Saying something nasty, mean or demeaning about a sister: $0.25 per occurrence
Withholding $5 for major arguments is quite a fee, considering each girl's allowance equated to half her age plus $2-3.
However, the girls also had the opportunity to redeem themselves and win back their pocket money through good deeds and being helpful around the house:
1. Cleaning up after dinner: $2
2. Setting the table before dinner: $1
3. Taking Maxwell for an afternoon walk without being told to do so: $1
4. Doing all of the following before school without being told to do so: making your bed, picking up all clothes off your floor, brushing your teeth, being cheerful in the morning: $1
5. Doing something extraordinarily nice for a sister or parent without being asked: $1
"Our dad thrives on order. And we were four girls who defined chaos to him, I think," Stephanie tells Yahoo Shine.
"If he was super serious about this, you bet he would've also had a spreadsheet detailing every single sanction and reducing of sanctions for each of us. And also graphs of it. Those were the kinds of things he liked to do."
Two words: Parenting genius.
How much pocket money do your kids earn? Do you ever cut it back for bad behaviour?
