Allowance

At a recent family meeting, my husband and I explained that we needed to try to cut back on our expenditures. We had recently bought a third car for our teenager to drive (allowing me to avoid dragging my two youngest children out of bed at 7AM every day to take my teenagers to school) and we decided that with Christmas coming up, it was time to cut back. Among several of the proposed cuts was allowance. My kids had gotten into the habit of wanting us to pay allowance while still generating a lot of expenses as though we had money to burn. (If anyone has seen that tree that money grows on, please tell me where to find it!)

Last night at one of our weekly family meetings, my husband started to go around the room. He always starts our meetings by asking each of our kids "Do you have anything to bring up?" Deciding to start with the youngest first, he asked our three-year-old this question. Luke looked like he was pondering his answer. He then said, "Ummmm. Allowance?"

And I thought raising teenaged girls was hard!