Do you charge your children "keep" or rent? Do/did you pay it yourself?

Never paid anything and I was about 25 when I left home , can't remember if we gave kids anything but certainly didn't charge them, ema was a thing when they were in 6th form was that £30 can't remember then at uni age they were gone but we were happy for them to have their own money
 
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Had to pay my parents £100/month once I turned 18 and had a job. I was only working part time because of college but did regular overtime so money wasn't an issue.

I think my parents did it because I would waste money on expensive things which I didn't need, all while living in their house eating food they were paying for etc so makes sense. I moved out at 22 hoping they were going to surprise me by giving it all back but they didn't lol :D

My daughter is now getting close to that age and has her own money. I gotta say I can understand what my parents were thinking now when I see my daughter spend almost £100 on makeup and then ask me for money to get college supplies :mad:
 
no_1_dave said:
Had to pay my parents £100/month once I turned 18 and had a job. I was only working part time because of college but did regular overtime so money wasn't an issue.

I think my parents did it because I would waste money on expensive things which I didn't need, all while living in their house eating food they were paying for etc so makes sense. I moved out at 22 hoping they were going to surprise me by giving it all back but they didn't lol :D

My daughter is now getting close to that age and has her own money. I gotta say I can understand what my parents were thinking now when I see my daughter spend almost £100 on makeup and then ask me for money to get college supplies :mad:
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It was a way to get you ready for the big wide world and also to get money that they had paid out on you. If they didn't give it back you have to ask, did they need it because they were hard up or just stingy?
 
Zefan said:
I never stayed with my parents outside of education apart from when I was waiting to join the military, which was a matter of a few weeks. I think, as a parent, I would ask sons to pay their way but not daughters.


For me it would be absolutely nothing to do with the financial/economical side and everything to do with the principle/opportunity to develop their - what should be - budding sense of personal responsibility.
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You'd ask your sons but not your daughters??
 
By the time I was earning I was paying the internet and TV bills but the whole household used it. I was also paying a token amount of “keep” which was given back to me (unexpectedly) when I was paying the deposit for my first house.
 
My parents knew I was saving virtually everything I could to buy my own place, so it would have been totally counterproductive to charge rent / keep.

I would have agreed had they asked, but I wouldn't have been happy about it.
 
no_1_dave said:
My daughter is now getting close to that age and has her own money. I gotta say I can understand what my parents were thinking now when I see my daughter spend almost £100 on makeup and then ask me for money to get college supplies :mad:
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It doesn’t stop when they get older… a few people are moaning about the council tax going up in the village fb group, then asking for Botox appointments.

This isn’t aimed just at females, I see both genders moaning about the cost of something that is essentially then flashing the cash in regards of something that is a luxury.
 
I skipped uni and went straight in to IT so by 20 was earning a fair bit of money, so yeah I started paying a contribution to upkeep while I was living at home.

With my kids it will depend on their situation, they are already pretty good at saving and thinking about their spending so probably not and if I did it would be basically to put aside for their deposit or whatever.
 
I paid board (board & lodgings) to my parents whenever I lived at home when working.

I'd still expect the same with my kids.

It's a life lesson that there's a cost to living in the real world and that's why a lot of young people, when sheltered from the financial reality of "moving out" get caught out. All that's exacerbated by the world's financial situation for many young people, especially trying to get onto the property ladder, find themselves in.
 
Just been through this, we 'charged' my daughter £200 a month when she was in full time employment earning £16K a year..

For that:
- All food (Costs us approx £200 a month just for specific Vegan/Vegetarian stuff)
- We gave her a new bedroom with aircon and brand new furniture, we only asked she pay the difference if she wanted to upspec things like wardrobe doors, the idea was to give her an adult space.
- 60" TV with all streaming services, sky, plex, etc.
- Mobile phone sim only contract paid (£15 a month)
- All essential clothing (underwear, socks, basic skirts/jeans/t-shirts etc)
- All essential toiletries
- Free ferrying around (Mum and Dads Taxi)
- All holidays including spending money
- Washing/ironing etc.

The money silently went straight to a savings account that now has £5k in an ISA to be used appropriately in the future.

I had to pay £200 rent to my parents in 1990 when my wage was just c£600pm, that didn't phase me as I knew they weren't well off and understood that paying my way was part of life.. they never charged me when I was out of work.. They put the money towards all the above I've mentioned we pay for my daughter.

Everyone is different, I know kids that are spoilt gits and their parents pay them to be at home with £50 a week pocket money even though they earn £1300+ a month.. and I know kids that are absolutely rock solid individuals who also don't pay to be at home and get even their car provided by their parents.. I don't think there is a universal rule on how kids turn out either way..

The funny thing is, when at home she was organised, had loads of spare cash, went out a lot, we helped her due to her autism a lot, and things were good. She wanted to move out after 2 years and felt she wanted to move closer to friends etc, so we've supported her with that, and she is struggling now in that she still gets a fair chunk of spending money each month but like a lot of 20 year olds, she can spend £500 a month just on nights out..
 
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I didn't. There was talk about it when I had left Uni and been in my first proper job for a couple of years but my step-dad at the time (what do you call an ex step-dad?) was a mega-**** so it was more encouragement to move out than anything else.

In retrospect it was great to get my own space and I should have done it sooner.

I probably wouldn't do it to my own kids (not planning to have any anyway) as it's a marginal increase in costs. There's an argument about teaching them budgeting but you learn that pretty quickly anyway.

NotAGolf said:
My kids are 4 and 7, so charging them rent might be a tad harsh.
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Bloody moochers! :p
 
I charged my eldest £85 a month when he first started as a 16yr old apprentice. What he didn't know was we put it into savings for him when he turned 18. As soon as he finished his apprenticeship and started earning proper money he saves himself now. Didn't put his rent up and now it goes into a holiday fund. I felt it was important to teach him early that you need to budget
 
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