Shaketha Marion McGregor has come up with an ingenious way to teach her children about responsibility and managing their money.
Rather than just giving her three kids, Serinity, six, Takeia, 10, and Jahkeem, 13, an allowance or randomly assigning them tasks, Shaketha created a ‘hiring event’ inviting the children to interview for key roles around the house; laundry supervisor, a kitchen manager and a lead housekeeper.
Shaketha included an advertisement for ‘mom’s credit union’, which would give her kids a line of credit to ‘allow them build their allowance and character’, and added name tags children had to wear when ‘clocking in’ for their shift.
The mum even left up a green job board for any new tasks that needed doing and could help the children earn more money, and a mailbox where the children can ‘leave notes, ask for loans, tell on their siblings and more.’
Shaketha shared her idea online, where it got her a load of fans and more than 126,000 shares.
She wrote on Facebook: ‘This is part of the system that I’m using to teach my children about responsibility, employment, money managing, time management, and lots more! ‘
The mum of three was motivated to come up with the idea following a sequence of tragedies that made it difficult for her to give her children whatever they wanted.
In 2016 Shaketha was diagnosed with cancer, which forced her to stop working and led to homelessness. When the family found another house, its contents were burned in a fire in November.
When the children kept asking for new mobile phones and replacements for the toys they lost, Shaketha surprised them with the hiring event.
The kids took it well. Serinity, six, ended up landing the lead housekeeper role.
Takeia, 10, spoke in a British accent throughout her interview. She’ll be on laundry duty, with tasks including ensuring the bathroom is stocked with towels.
13-year-old Jahkeem was a little less professional as he said he needed a few days before he could start the position because he ‘wanted to hang out with his friends’, and laughed while applying for the job. He’s been invited to reapply.
Following the reaction to her idea, Shaketha is now making customised household job plans for other families.
She’s sharing her scheme to encourage other parents to teach their children the life lessons they don’t learn in school.
Shaketha said: ‘No child I know is learning about credit in school. The interview process teaches a lot of lessons that can be carried on through life. Catch your child’s attention.’
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