Alexis Ohanian shared the sweet way he and Serena Williams are teaching their 8-year-old daughter, Olympia, about responsibilities and money management.
On Thursday, the Reddit co-founder and tech investor posted a clip from his interview on the Spolitics with Jemele Hill podcast he did a few months ago. In the video, he explained how they decided on a reasonable allowance for their daughter and everything she’s required to do to earn it.
“For Olympia, she has an allowance,” Alexis shared. “She gets $7 a week. Serena was her lawyer in the negotiation. I drew up a real contract. We negotiated it. Her mom was her counsel, which was really frustrating.”
“[Olympia]’s gotta feed the dog, she’s gotta put her clothes in the hamper, she makes her bed — So, she does that five days a week. Mom negotiated weekends off.”
Funny enough, when Olympia initially started getting an allowance, she didn’t even want real money…she wanted to be paid in Robux (the virtual currency used in the video game Roblox).
“I figured out how to get her to value cash, which was helpful,” Alexis continued. “We’re trying to create that flywheel between doing the work and getting the money, and then understanding there are things you could want.”
There was a time when Olympia saved up “quite a bit of money,” almost $100, and at the time she really wanted a Tamagotchi watch which retailed for around $125. Olympia realized she didn’t have enough, and Alexis thought that was a good teaching moment for her to determine and embrace how many more weeks she would need to do chores in order to have enough for the watch. She eventually saved enough and bought it.
“A week goes by, and she stopped caring about it. Another week or two comes by, and she’s like, ‘I really want this American Girl doll dress.'” Olympia checked her piggy bank, but didn’t have what she needed. She even tried to use her best “puppy eyes” to win over her dad, and even though he admits to giving into her sometimes, he really wanted her to understand the “pain” of knowing that she has to wait until her “next paycheck” to get something.
“Neither Serena nor I grew up with wealth, so that’s the other weird thing. We’re both trying to navigate how to create the circumstances for her to be able to be a functional adult, while also having resources that we couldn’t have imagined.”
“At the same time, you want to give for your kids; you want to provide the opportunities, but I still need her to feel a lil bit of that pain to hopefully have it sink in. I joke — although I’m really not joking — but she’s gotta work a retail job or a service job [when she’s older].”
Fans absolutely loved how Alexis and Serena are teaching Olympia about money:
You can tell that Alexis and Serena want nothing but the best for their children, so I always love the personal stories they share about their family. I grew up doing chores for an allowance, so it’s great to see people still keep that tradition alive.
Did you have an allowance growing up? What responsibilities were you in charge of growing up? Let me know in the comments!
