A mother has started teaching her nine-year-old twins “real life lessons” — making them pay rent, fines for messy rooms and even risk “eviction.”
LaToya Whitfield, 38, gives her daughters, Grace and Autumn, weekly lessons on money, responsibility and the value of hard work.
After her daughters demanded expensive dinners twice in one week a month ago, LaToya bought play money and set up a weekly payment system.
The twins must pay $80 rent, $10 for electricity, and $5 for WiFi and gas. If they don’t pay, they face “eviction” to the sunroom.
She also fines them for dirty rooms but gives bonuses for good grades and behavior.
LaToya, a HR recruiter and custom T-shirt business owner from Atlanta, said: “I don’t want to make it hard for them.
“I just want to drop the seed inside of them for all of the lessons that they are learning during this time.”
It all began a month ago when Grace and Autumn asked to go to Benihana, a popular Japanese hibachi restaurant, twice in one week.
LaToya said: “I asked the girls what they wanted for dinner and they said hibachi which can cost a little pretty penny.
“So I told the girls I didn’t have any more hibachi money this week and I would have to sell more T-shirts or something else in order to make the money.
“One of the girls said didn’t you just get paid and I thought ‘Oh that’s how you think this works’.
“So I got on Canva and I created a lease for them to make it feel real and it went from there.”
LaToya even drew up a pretend lease — just like a rental contract — listing the expenses Grace and Autumn must cover after payday.
Every Friday, the twins receive a paycheck in their mailbox, which they cash at the household “bank” before paying their bills.
Their weekly expenses include $80 for rent, $10 for electricity, and $5 each for Wi-Fi and gas.
They can also be fined for leaving their room or bathroom dirty, or for not cleaning up after themselves.
If they don’t pay their bills, they face “eviction” to the sunroom — a cozy space rebranded as the “streets.”
LaToya said: “I hope that this is something that will pop in their mind when they get older and they have to start making these decisions on their own.”
In addition to fines, Grace and Autumn can earn rewards for good grades or positive behaviour such as practicing effective conflict resolution with each other.
LaToya hopes that those real-life lessons will instill good financial responsibility in her daughters.
She said: “The girls are very responsible and self-sufficient.
“They can cook on a gas stove by themselves and deep clean their bathrooms by themselves.
“They even keep track of their own grades.
“I am hoping that not only they will learn, but that they will remember this experience forever.”
