Famous Daddy Dollars

Here is the information about the famous Daddy Dollars that we use in our home. I have used chore charts, routine cards, begged, pleaded, cried and yelled. None of that has worked as well or as long as Daddy Dollars. I saw a short article in Family Fun magazine that listed the website and the basic idea for this. We changed it up a bit to fit our family.


The first thing to do is to print some Daddy Dollars. Right now we are only using one dollar bills because we thought that would be easier for the younger kids. I think we are going to add ten dollar bills and see how that goes. The website to upload the picture and have it adjust the color to fit on the bill is www.festisite.com/money/



Mommy Mart

The next thing we did was come up with things the kids would want. We decided on the following for rewards that are offered in the Mommy Mart. 30 minutes of TV $3, 30 minutes of computer $3. 30 minutes of Wii $5, Tickle Daddy $1, Movie Night with popcorn $10, Game Night $15, Build a Fort and Sleep in it $30, Have a Friend over $10, Build a Fire $15. We have changed these around and will sometimes add things to motivate the kids again. These are posted inside our cupboard. It is a post it note on a library pocket. The idea was when the kids paid for something they put the money in the pocket. Now they usually just put the money back into Mom's pile. When they buy something then other people get to do it with them. So each kid does not have to pay $10 to watch the movie. One kid gets to buy the movie and treat the family to it. Contrary to what Emily tells everyone, we do not take Daddy Dollars away! Would you work for a boss that took you paycheck away after you had earned it? We have found that we can charge for things but they know what it is and they make the choice. One example of this is Nathan and Brandon have been sneaking in and watching TV with us. So we told them we are now charging them $1 for everytime we have to tell them to get in bed, but the first time is free.


Now exactly how do the kids earn these Daddy Dollars? The first thing everyday they have a few things they have to get done (eat breakfast, get dressed, brush teeth and hair, make bed). If that is done when the alarm on my cell phone goes off they get $3 Daddy Dollars. We have listed jobs they can do to earn money and we have jobs that I will announce that need to be done and how much I am paying. Daddy Dollars can also be given out freely to help encourage any thing. An example is sometimes I will give out $10 to the person that goes and brushes their teeth before bed the FIRST time I ask.

This has worked great for us. I don't feel like I am the computer/tv/wii police all the time. Each TV has a timer. If I notice that the timer is not going then their time is up. They can still play with toys at no charge and we can change things upquickly by writing on a post it note.

We had our kids babysit themselves for a couple of hours a few weeks ago. We told them we would pay three real dollars or six Daddy Dollars to each of them for babysitting. They all took the Daddy Dollars. We have a new favorite babysitter!