From the author: During consultations, parents often ask the psychologist questions about whether it is worth giving a child (teenager) pocket money, what amount is best to allocate for independent expenses, whether to give money regularly or as a special reward for achieved success? The article answers these questions and tells parents how to make handling pocket money useful for the development of a child (teenager). The question of allocating pocket money to a child (teenager) sooner or later arises in every family. What hinders modern parents from quickly and unambiguously deciding in favor of allocating it is the fair understanding that this money is spent by their son/daughter, as a rule, on nonsense - chewing gum, chips and lollipops, notebooks and pens, of which the house is already full. It also happens that parents, having noticed that the child (teenager) does not help at all around the house, is rude, secretive, does not study well, begin to be inclined to believe that he does not deserve pocket money and, as a result, will not receive it. On the other hand, parents notice that many of the child’s classmates and friends receive money for independent spending, and not giving pocket money to your child means facing uncomfortable questions from the child (teenager) about “why am I worse than others? Why is it given to them, but not to me?” Such pros and cons exist, raise doubts among parents and prompt a psychologist to discuss the issue of pocket money professionally. The first thing that is important to understand about pocket money is that it is money that the child is free to use as he wishes and at his own discretion. That is, when giving a child pocket money, it is important for a parent to recognize the child’s right to spend it as he sees fit, and internally give up the typical parental need to control what was purchased. The truth about pocket money is that it is, in most cases, spent on things that most parents would hate to spend it on. At the same time, the opportunity to buy “all this nonsense” allows the child not so much to become the owner of specific things that are attractive to him, but to feel independent, to some extent free, no worse than others. And it is pleasant and useful for any child and teenager to feel this way. Therefore, if you clearly answer the question of “to give or not to give” pocket money, then the psychologist’s opinion is to give. This decision is also supported by the fact that it is pocket money that allows a child (teenager) to prepare for adult life through mastering the role of a buyer. And even if a child (teenager) already goes to the store to buy groceries for the family, the psychology of pocket money is different. These are free expenses that you don’t need to account for and that you need to think through yourself (if I buy chewing gum, I won’t have enough for lollipops). The question of the amount of pocket expenses that immediately arises here is very interesting. On the one hand, pocket money should not be large. Wasted, as has just been written, “on nonsense”, it is good if they are quite modest. On the other hand, not so small as to cause feelings of humiliation in the child (“it would be better if you didn’t give anything than to give these miserable 30 rubles for a week”) and resentment (“everyone is given 500, but you only give me 50”) . To resolve the issue of the amount of pocket money, it is good to understand how much they are currently giving to the child’s peers and how much I, as a parent, am ready to allocate. This amount also depends on the age of the child: the older the child, the greater his pocket expenses. A fair question is also about the regularity of allocating money for pocket expenses. Since it is difficult for a child and even a teenager to plan their expenses in detail, save for later and refrain from momentary desires to buy something for company, it is better to give pocket money once a week than, for example, once a month. Of course, the frequency for each specific family may be different, but it is important.