Serena Williams And Husband Alexis Ohanian Negotiated A 'Contract' With Their 7-Year-Old Daughter To Make Her Work For A Weekly Allowance
Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian are dedicated to making sure their daughter understands the value of money.
lev radin | Shutterstock Celebrity parents Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian are determined not to raise entitled children who don't understand the importance of hard work. Despite Williams and Ohanian having a combined net worth of hundreds of millions, the couple refuses to have their 7-year-old daughter simply skate by without understanding the value of an earned paycheck.
That's why Ohanian, who co-founded Reddit in 2005, explained in a video posted to his social media account on X (formerly known as Twitter) that he and Williams decided to create a contract with their daughter regarding the amount of money that she would get in allowance. He explained that her money came at a price and proved that whether or not you're in the spotlight, parenting still comes down to raising capable human beings.
Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian negotiated a 'contract' with their daughter to make her work for a weekly allowance.
"For Olympia, she has an allowance. She gets $7 a week," Ohanian explained in the video. "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."
Ohanian explained that in order for Olympia to receive her weekly allowance, she was responsible for completing various chores around the house. Some of those chores included feeding the dog, putting her dirty clothes in the hamper, and making her bed, which she does five days a week. Ohanian joked that Williams was able to negotiate Olympia having the "weekends off," where she didn't have to do any chores.
Ohanian admitted that he and Williams are trying to create a 'flywheel' between working and getting money.
He claimed that both he and Williams are trying to teach Olympia that it's important to understand there are things you could want, but to get those things, you need to be able to work hard and earn money. He recalled a time when Olympia had saved up quite a lot of money, around $100, and she really wanted to buy a Tamagotchi watch.
"It was like $125," Ohanian said. "I was like, 'You got money,' and she's like, 'I don't have enough.' I was like, 'Okay, good. Embrace that feeling. How many more weeks of allowance do you need to be able to save up for it?' And she's like, 'Three more.'"
As soon as Olympia earned enough money for the watch, her parents took the cash out and bought it for her. However, a week went by, and she stopped caring about the Tamagotchi. Then, two weeks went by, and Olympia told her parents she really wanted an American Girl doll dress. Once again, Ohanian told his daughter to go to her piggy bank and see what she had.
This time, Olympia had nothing, considering she'd spent all her money on the watch. Ohanian joked that his daughter often tries to give him the "puppy dog eyes," hoping he'll cave and buy her what she wants, but Ohanian is firm with the lessons he wants to teach her.
"I need her to feel that little bit of pain of like, 'Ugh, I gotta wait two more weeks for that paycheck,' and then start to remember, 'Because I do this work, I get this money.' Neither Serena nor I grew up with wealth. So we're both trying to navigate how to create the circumstances for her to be able to be a functional adult while having resources that we couldn't have imagined."
There are immense benefits to kids working for an allowance.
According to a study from T. Rowe Price, an investment service, kids who earn allowance money often end up feeling more confident about managing their finances, their spending decisions, and the value of money. Kids who are allowed to make spending errors as well will often learn from their spending mistakes.
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These kids feel more knowledgeable about making future spending decisions. To help them, parents should follow Williams and Ohanian's advice by making their children earn money instead of simply giving them cash or buying them things without a second thought. If parents choose to have a "no-strings-attached" method, there should still be consequences if they mishandle their money.
For example, if a teenager is responsible for buying their back-to-school essentials, they should be able to budget wisely to afford every item they want — or they'll have to face the consequence of missing out on getting that cool, new backpack they were eyeing.
Cognitive scientist and author Denise Cummins explained that there are always benefits to kids having to learn the responsibility of saving and earning money, saying, "The upside of this is that children learn a sense of empowerment — that the amount of money they have in their pockets is up to them and their willingness to work hard. The downside is that if your children may decide they’d rather not do the chores even if it means foregoing their allowance."
At the end of the day, Ohanian and Williams' method seems to be instilling a strong sense of accountability for their daughter, and despite their combined net worth reportedly being close to $500 million, the couple is dedicated to ensuring that Olympia has a grounded childhood while learning the importance of financial literacy.
Nia Tipton is a staff writer with a bachelor's degree in creative writing and journalism who covers news and lifestyle topics that focus on psychology, relationships, and the human experience.
