Maggie, at From Cave Walls, and Lauren, at LSS Attitude of Gratitude, alternate hosting Throwback Thursday. The idea of the prompt is for them to give us a topic and for us to write a post in which we share our own memories or experiences about the given topic. This week, Maggie chose the topic of “Chores and Allowances.” She wants to know…
Did you have chores you were responsible for? At what age did that begin?
Probably starting at around five years old, my main “chore” was to keep my bedroom clean and neat.
Were you required to make your bed and keep your room tidy?
Yes, but that didn’t include things like vacuuming. My mom did that.
Did you have the responsibility for those chores for siblings or others in the house? Were chores evenly distributed?
I had two older sisters and they forbade me from setting foot in their rooms.
Were you asked to take out the trash, mow the lawn, or do the dishes? How about cooking?
Yes, yes, yes, and no.
Were you given an allowance? If so, at what age and how much?
I think I was about 10 when I started getting a 50¢ a week allowance. That was bumped up to $1 a week a few years later. Other than that, I earned my own money by mowing lawns, raking leaves, shoveling snow, and delivering newspapers.
Were there repercussions if you did not do your chores?
Sometimes it cost me my allowance. At other times, I would be grounded.
How did you establish chores once you had a home of your own?
I traveled for my job and was on the road a lot, so my wife handled assigning household chores to the kids.
This, That, and the Other 
Doing chores at 5 years sounds like your parents started inculcating good habits early.
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Thanks for joining in Fandango. I too, never wanted my brothers touching my stuff. Did you not cook because you didn’t want to or because your sisters were better at it?
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Yes to both!
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I vaguely remember that I also cleaned my brother’s room – well, at least made the bed. By the time I had done the entire house, my room was the last thing I wanted to clean. I just closed the door and put up a sign that said enter at your own risk. I always wanted a paper route – until I realized how early I would be required to get up EVERY DAY! Thanks for taking the time to respond, Fandango.
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Was a dollar a lot of money back in those days? Cool you could also earn some money of your own by doing odd jobs like raking leaves, shoveling snow, etc.
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Yes it was. This was back in the Fifties.
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I didn’t have any chores. I just kept my room nice because I wanted to do so. If I ever cleaned the bathroom or the kitchen floor (a few times), I got a big ho-hum. This was after my mom divorced my dad, so I don’t know how my dad would’ve reacted. I have to give my mother credit, here, for not being inconsistent in this regard. She didn’t encourage me to do anything other than my academic work after I was beyond grade school — no sports or clubs although I finally got into a few extracurriculars anyway because teachers sponsored and promoted them. I had an allowance from my dad which was supposed to cover lunch at school. I suppose I could consider it a chore to have watched over myself when I got home from school each day, already in grade school. I later was a babysitter.
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Compared to my friends I got a lot of allowance, but the catch was that I had to budget and pay for school lunches and supplies with that money too. And of course if I didn’t do my chores my allowance got cut.
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