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No New Allowance

"Here's your allowance," said Mom.

"Do I have to have an allowance?" asked Todd.

"You don't want your allowance?"

"You don't want your allowance?"

"I want a commission," said Todd.

"A commission?" Mom looked puzzled.

"We learned about it at school. It's like when a car salesman gets money for each car he sells. Instead of getting my five-dollar allowance, I'd get paid for each chore I do. I can make more than just five dollars if
I work on commission."

Todd handed a piece of paper to his mom. "I even made a chore chart to show how it would work."

"Hmmm," said Mom. "These prices look fair to me. I guess we can try this if you really want to."

Maybe a commission wasn't such a good idea.

During the next week, whenever Todd finished a chore, he placed a sticker on the chart. On Saturday, he showed his mom the chart. "Let's see," she said. "You loaded the dishwasher four times, you folded towels two times, and you took out the trash three times. And that adds up to—"

Only two dollars and twenty-five cents!" groaned Todd. "Can I just have my five-dollar allowance?"

Mom smiled and shook her head. "You're the one who wanted to work on commission," she said, counting out Todd's earnings. "Let's see how you do next week."

Todd sighed. He didn't know why he had thought a commission would be such a good idea. It didn't seem to be working out too well.

The next week, Todd did every chore listed on the chart almost every day. On Saturday morning, Todd ran to Mom with his chore chart full of stickers.

Mom smiled as she looked at the chart. "This looks much better," she said. "Let's add it up."

"I already did, Mom!" said Todd. "You owe me seven dollars and fifty cents!"

"Are you sure you don't want me to give you your five-dollar allowance?" asked Mom.

Todd laughed. "Nope. No more allowance!"