What Happened to Plain Old Allowances?

"The hope was that these payments would teach children to save rather than spend. But not everyone was a fan of the idea. Sidonie Matsner Gruenberg, an influential writer and educator, argued that some uses of the allowances confused "the give-and-take of family life with the buy-and-sell of the market place"; a 1935 article in Parents' Magazine argued that the payments would turn a child into a "calculating, hard-bargaining adult.""

"A century later, allowances are still around. According to a 2018 survey conducted by Merrill Lynch and Age Wave of 2,500 American parents, more than half of those with kids ages 7 to 17 gave allowances out. Earlier this year, a Wells Fargo survey of nearly 1,600 parents of kids ages 5 to 17 found that 71 percent of them gave allowances, with payments averaging $37 a week."

In the 1920s affluent parents reacted to intensified toy advertising and children's demands by adopting small weekly payments to teach saving and financial limits. Parenting magazines promoted allowances as a way for children to squirrel away money for toys or treats. Critics cautioned that allowances could blur family reciprocity with market transactions and encourage calculating behavior. Allowances persist today: recent surveys show a majority of parents give them, with averages near $37 weekly. The practice has broadened beyond cash to include lessons about bank fees, interest, investing, credit scores, and loan payments, sometimes called "allowances supercharged."

Read at The Atlantic