Remember the days when we used to cut grass or wash the car to get an allowance? While most Baby Boomers would’ve been thrilled to receive an extra bit of pocket money here and there, a 15-year-old from Beverly Hills in the US insists she’s being forced to live like a “peasant” after her mother cut her generous allowance from $US5,000 ($AU6,650) to $1,000 a month.
Nicolette, a girl seemingly more in need of a reality check than a pay check, dragged her mother onto popular US talk show Dr Phil to argue that she should be getting at least $2500 a month in pocket money.
In a video posted on the Dr Phil Facebook Page, the self-proclaimed “spoilt brat” said: “I can’t deal with this. And that’s why I came to you for help.” On Tuesday’s episode, the 15-year-old explained how she grew up on a certain lifestyle, and her mum “just can’t take that away from me immediately”.
She added: “If someone took that lifestyle away from her, she wouldn’t like that. And I grew up on it, it’s all I’ve ever known.”
Nicolette went on to plead that she needed the extra money because her mum works all the time and doesn’t do anything for her. “Other people would have their mums drive them places … buy them food … make them food, but I have to do everything myself, and I need the funds for that,” she explained.
The young girl added that needs a new $231,658 car, a Mercedes-Benz G class sports, for her 16th birthday, but her mother, wants to give her daughter a high-end Mercedes C class car instead, which Nicolette doesn’t seem too happy about.
Facebook users were quick to comment on the video with one saying, “They have to learn to work and earn it. It’s called responsibility and maturity”.
Another added: “I thought I was being nice by giving my grandkids $5 per day if they helped me work and earned it.”
A lot has changed since Baby Boomers were kids, but pocket money has remained a central rite of passage for many Aussie kids.
A Teachers Mutual Bank report found that almost 70 per cent of Australian adults, from 18-year-olds to retirees, received some form of pocket money as a child. But while 67 per cent of adults remember their allowance being dependant on doing household chores, the types of jobs children take on to earn their pocket money these days has noticeably changed.
In particular, the number of children doing labour-intensive work, such as mowing the lawn or helping in the garden, to earn their pocket money has steadily declined over the past 50 years. Running errands is another chore that has been largely phased-out. The survey showed that 55-64 year olds were more than four times more likely to have run errands when they were children.
The amount of cash kids receive as pocket money has also transformed over the years. Almost half of the survey respondents remember receiving less than $5 per week, and only 20 per cent think kids today should receive less than $5 per week. But, back in 1966, $5 was more than 8 per cent of an adult weekly wage — in 2016, the same percentage of the average Australian weekly earnings is equivalent to $126.