Father Michael Madden has justified his decision to charge his daughter rent, even though she is still a child, saying that it is a good cause.
When you live with your parents and share a room, you always argue over how much it costs to rent.
But this talk usually happens between working adults or older teens who live in the house, not children younger than 10.
This is exactly what Madden, the Texas father, is doing.
He used social media to explain that he is really teaching his six-year-old daughter Rose how to be responsible with money. He even told her how much she is being paid and how much he is billing her.
Madden is a full-time area manager at a Central Texas distributor of mechanicals. He has seen many adults struggle to learn basic management skills and wanted to make sure his daughter wasn’t one of them.
He explained his choice to People on the radio by saying, “I thought, if she’s going to make money, she should learn that not all of it is hers to spend.”
Rose makes money by doing jobs around the house and doing her duties without being asked, including cleaning her room or brushing her teeth.
You get points for doing these things. When she gets to 25 points (for the whole week), it’s worth $5. She’ll get an extra bonus if she scores 30.
She has to pay 20% of her take-home income for rent and utilities. The man begged Rose to pay her $1 rent and $3 electricity bill in a video that was posted on the TikTok account michael_talksmoney.
Madden said, “Everything is kept in her name.”
We don’t want her money. It’s like teaching her that if you make money, some of it will go toward your needs before you can get what you want. This is a tutorial in how to budget.
But Madden has gotten some pushback online over this method.
Someone replied, “What’s wrong with being a kid and not having to worry about rent, utilities, and money?”
Another person says, “Teaching them to pay bills isn’t teaching them about money.”
Another individual said, “Damn,” which was in line with what the third person said. She’ll have to pay bills for the rest of her life. And she’ll never enjoy being a kid.
A closeup of the chore chart
But other individuals have said that it’s a terrific concept.
Someone said, “It’s actually smart.” She is a student who is young. She knows how much a dollar is worth. Smart parenting is good.
He also wrote, “Wait, I wish my parents had done something like this. Understanding money is so important.”
Do you wish your parents had done this to you when you were a kid?
