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How Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian negotiated daughter Olympia's $7 weekly allowance

“Her mom was her counsel, which was really frustrating.”

Credit: Dangerous Lee, Edittoy

Despite a combined net worth of nearly half a billion dollars, Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian wanted to teach their daughter the importance of hard work.

In 2022, Vulture declared it was the “year of the Nepo Baby,” with a jaw-dropping, borderline-controversial cover story featuring various famous offspring of celebrities, including Zoe Kravitz (daughter of Lenny Kravitz and Lisa Bonet), Maya Hawke (the daughter of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman), and Jack Quaid, Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid’s son.


“Like psoriasis, the label was something you were born with, and those who had it found it equally irritating.” - Nate Jones, Vulture

According to the article, the phrase “nepo baby” quickly became synonymous with “the child of a celebrity,” insinuating that people born into the lime light were out-of-touch and over-privileged, and it was the Internet’s job to keep them humble. However, tennis superstar Serena Williams and her husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, won’t rely on online obsessives to instill humility in their children. As is the case with their seven-year-old daughter, Olympia, they’re playing a different game. Despite the power couple’s combined net worth approaching half a billion dollars, the two formally drew up a surprisingly modest $7 per week allowance system, in the hopes of teaching their daughter the value of hard work.


“Yes, Olympia’s got a contract,” Ohanian revealed in a video posted to social media. “[A] $7 per week allowance, negotiated by her mom (who, yes, got her weekends off).”

The duo’s approach to parenting has gone viral, withs fans praising their commitment to keeping Olympia grounded, rather than just spoiling her rotten. Which, of course would be easy to do, given that Williams, one of the highest-paid female athletes in the world, has an estimated net worth of $340 million, according to Business Insider, while her husband earned a net worth totaling $150 million.

During the negotiation, Ohanian insisted on creating a formal contract to outline expectations, while Williams served as Olympia’s counsel, creating an opposition Ohanian jokingly described as "really frustrating. The final terms of the contract? In order to receive her weekly allowance, Olympia’s responsibilities include:

  • Feeding the family’s dog, Chip.
  • Putting her clothes in the hamper.
  • Making her bed.

serena williams, daughter, tennis, champion, olympiaSerena Williams with her daughter, Olympia. Credit: Fotonerd

Typical for a seven-year-old, but thanks to her mother’s formidable litigation prowess, Olympia gets the weekends off, ensuring chores are completed five days a week. Ohanian describes the compromise as a “flywheel” between effort and reward, explaining that “neither Serena nor I grew up with wealth, so we’re both trying to navigate how to create the circumstances for [Olympia] to be a functional adult while also having resources that we couldn’t have imagined.”

Their plan is already working: in the same video, Ohanian also shares an anecdote about how Olympia’s mentality is slowly shifting to understanding that work equals reward, and that good things come to those who hustle.

“She really wanted this Tamagotchi watch. She had saved up quite a bit of money, probably almost $100. [The watch] was like, $125. I asked, ‘You got money?’ And she’s like, ‘I don’t have enough.’ I replied, ‘Okay, good. Embrace that feeling. How many more weeks of allowance do you need to be able to save up for it?’ So, as soon as she gets it, we clear out the bank and she got the Tamagotchi watch.” - Alexis Ohanian

But it doesn’t end there—just like the adult world, there’s always something shiny and new to desire, to covet, to buy. And before long, Olympia had her eye on an American Girl doll dress. However, after emptying her piggy bank on the watch, financially, she was back at square one.

“She gave me the cute puppy dog eyes. Believe me, she knows how to work Papa,” Ohanian recalls with a smile. “[But] I need her to feel that little bit of pain of like, 'Oh, I got to wait two more weeks for that paycheck.’”

butters, south park, paycheck, money, earningsSouth Park Gifmedia4.giphy.com

Commenters flooded Ohanian’s posts with praise, applauding the couple’s level-headed approach, with people writing, “Amazing lesson here. This is the how privileged children should be raised so they can understand the value of money,” and “Reminds me of how my mother did almost the same, except that I got my favorite books and a small treat for ticking off everything on her list. You two are good parents.”

Others even tried to negotiate a higher allowance for Olympia, with one person saying: “This is good, it’s exactly how my allowance went, I also got $7 a week. But that was in the late 90s/early 2000s. I think she should renegotiate for inflation.” Another attempted to give the seven-year-old financial advice, writing, “Have her flip or resell the Tamagotchi on eBay, Facebook Marketplace, or [with] another kid in school or in the neighborhood. Learn how to sell and position. I involve my 5-year-old in as many negotiations as possible” (To which Ohanian replied, "Love this.").


Financial experts are also on board with Williams and Ohanian’s strategy. Investopedianotes that when children are taught money management early, they tend to develop better financial habits as adults. And in their groundbreaking paper, Habit Formation and Learning in Young Children, Dr. David Whitebread and Dr. Sue Bingham of the University of Cambridge discovered that by age seven, children are able to “cognitively ‘represent’ value,” and that “several basic concepts relating broadly to later ‘finance’ behaviors will typically have developed,” which has been taken to mean that by age seven, a child’s money habits are already set.

But you don’t have to explain that to Serena Williams or Alexis Ohanian. The two came from humble beginnings and learned early on the important connection between hard work and financial success. Williams began her prodigious professional tennis career at just 14, when she competed at the Bell Challenge in Quebec City in 1995, earning her first $240 in prize money (approximately $500 today). Ohanian, on the other hand, was 23-years-old when he co-founded Reddit in 2005, then sold the website to publishing giant Conde Nast a year later for a mere $10 million; a deal that’s been described as “what turned out to be pennies on the dollar compared to its most recent multibillion-dollar valuation.”


serena williams, alexis ohanian, tennis, met gala, redditWilliams and Ohanian at the Met Gala.Credit: Ron Buckmire

Compared to her peers, Olympia is already ahead of the curve when it comes to financial education. But that’s not because her parents are famous: while she may only be earning $7 a week now, she’s being set up with a toolkit filled with invaluable lessons to succeed in life—by earning it.

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An education for the guys I overheard talking about their 'teacher friend.'

If you think teaching is easy, you're wrong.

Dear guys on the train,

I must apologize for starters. It’s all my fault. I was eavesdropping. I tend to do that on the Red Line. Unlike most folks who keep their earbuds in and their music up loud, I don’t want to miss anything. I’m a chronic people-watcher. And lately, I’ve found that paying attention can be a ministry in itself. So, that’s really all I was trying to do.

Anyway, enough about me. Let’s talk about you guys.

Image via iStock.

I heard you, the one with your tie loosened and wearing a Rolex, talking to your other friend in the nice suit. Talking about your other friend Josh.

Your conversation went a little something like this:

“Dude, he never goes out anymore. Ever. He’s like a hermit.”

“I know, bro. He acts like he’s so busy. He teaches f**king third grade. His day ends at, like, 3, haha.”

“God, I wish he knew what it was like in the real world for a day. He thinks his job is so hard.”

*Awkwardly long laughter*

“Yeah, and he’s been a cheapskate ever since we left Ann Arbor.”

“Seriously. Try living with him. But he can’t expect to make as much as we do when we work our asses off year-round. It’s only October and, I mean, he’s got fall break coming up and he’ll be off for Thanksgiving and he gets several weeks off at Christmas time, yet he thinks he’s got it rough.”

“If only he knew…”

“Ha.” *Checks phone* “Wanna grab a beer? Taylor just texted me and said they’re going out.”

“Hell yeah, man. I’m down.”

Then you guys got off at the stop before mine and left me thinking. The more I thought about it and replayed your conversation in my mind, I knew I had to write you.

Image via iStock.

I don’t know your other friend Josh, but he’s clearly not as cool as you guys, going out on a Wednesday night at 10 for beers with Taylor.

From what I gathered, you guys are sick of your teacher friend. You’re annoyed at how frugal he is, how early he goes to sleep, and how much time off he gets.

The thing is, I wanted to speak up so badly, but I suppressed my inner thoughts, which were bursting at the seams, and withheld from butting into your conversation.

Until now.

You see, I wanted to inform you I was a public school teacher for several years. I taught high school, sixth grade, and first grade. I resigned after this past school year ended because I couldn’t take it anymore. I wasn’t cut out for it.

I wanted to ask you if you’ve ever had to run on a treadmill for eight hours straight on a speed that’s just a tad too fast. That's the only way I could describe the physical exhaustion of being a teacher.

I wanted to correct your assumption that Josh’s workday ends at 3 p.m.

As a former teacher, I can’t help but offer you a mini-lesson: Teachers arrive before school begins and stay long after it ends. They spend countless hours in the evenings, on weekends, and especially during their “long breaks” completing lesson plans, grading assignments, filling out behavior charts, calling parents, scheduling meetings, updating individualized education programs, preparing for standardized tests, writing out goals, changing the theme on the bulletin board, buying supplies for a science experiment (in an effort to make learning fun in hopes that the kids will love it), coaching sports, tutoring, entering grades, cleaning the classroom, filing paperwork, communicating with necessary colleagues about specific student needs, etc. I guess it’s not a mini-lesson after all. Oops.

Image via iStock.

I wanted to challenge you to work all day without using the restroom once, to eat your brown-bagged lunch in less than seven minutes, and to stay patient when you have 20-something students in desperate need for your attention and you just want to reply to an email.

I wanted to break it down for you so you could better understand why Josh is frugal — why, aside from being utterly exhausted, he doesn’t go out as much anymore. For pennies each hour per student, he’s busting his butt to ensure they are not only educated but taught to be kind and courageous, and are safe and loved.

I wanted to reminisce on my time in the classroom and share with you about the students whose home lives kept me up at night and the emotional toll this took on me and my marriage.

I wanted to make you ponder the differences between your jobs and his, but I’m afraid we would’ve run out of time. I’ll just throw this one out there: You can probably get away with being tired (or even hungover), whereas Josh has to be on from the minute those kids arrive in the morning.

I wanted to tell you that, in case you weren’t aware, teachers don’t fill out expense reports at the end of each week. It all comes out of their pocket. And only a guy like Josh would be cool enough to sacrifice a beer in order to buy scissors for his third-graders.

Image via iStock.

I wanted to give you a hundred ideas for how you could be supportive of Josh and the selfless job he’s chosen.

I wanted to acknowledge your jobs are probably hard, too, but gently remind you that you’re probably at least respected and compensated. Teachers can’t earn bonuses or raises. The incentive to be the best boils down to the heart and a strong dose of integrity.

Look, I know I don't know you. And I can't possibly know the whole context of your conversation. But I used to be a teacher, and I know how your friend Josh might be feeling. I know what it's like to have friends who don't get that feeling. I couldn't say these things to them at the time, but hearing your conversation reminded me of the things I wish I had.

I wanted to let you know I now work in “the real world” and it’s only reaffirmed my once-biased belief that teachers have one of the hardest, most important, undervalued, and underpaid jobs in the world.

Sincerely,

The ex-teacher on the train (and an advocate for all the Joshes in this world)

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I didn't respect my dad's job as a janitor. This is what I would tell him now.

Today she's proud to be a janitor's daughter, but she didn't always feel that way.

True
Fathers Everywhere

Argelia is a 39-year-old Mexican-American mom of two. She works as a training coordinator in Los Angeles, has a great family, and is known to wake up with a smile every day.

She gives a lot of credit to her late dad, Angel, though, who taught her the value of hard work and sacrifice. Her only regret is it took her a while to realize what he provided for his family. This is her story as told to Upworthy.

All photos provided by Argelia, used with permission.


Dear Dad,

Parents often say to their children, "You'll understand when you have kids." I never got that before, but now, in my case, I feel like that's very true.

Only a parent can understand the sacrifice you made to leave my mom, me sister, and me in Mexico to come work in the United States. As a 2-year-old, I didn't understand why you weren't with us. You were that faraway mystery — "my dad" — the wonderfully sweet man who would call me before bedtime to say, "good night."

I remember standing in my mom's room around all of your clothes asking: "Do you think he misses me? Do you think he likes me?" I thought about you all the time. You were a larger-than-life hero in my mind.

Two years later, when we finally moved to the United States to be with you, I found out that you were everything I had imagined, and many things I had not.

A young Argelia spending some quality time with her dad.

I didn't understand why you were always working. You left for work every day as soon as I got home from school and returned after I was already asleep. You even worked on weekends. To me, you were still the mystery that I thought about so often while in Mexico.

But instead of trying to figure you out, I just went with the flow. Being from another country, I focused on fitting in with everyone else instead, and that went on for a few years. But things got real once my classmates started sharing what their parents did for a living.

"My dad is a doctor," one said.

"My parents own a business," another said.

That's when I went home and asked you what you did for a living, and you told me that you were a janitor at a hospital. I was devastated.

Angel enjoying some rare downtime at work.

I heard how the kids joked with each other at my school by saying, "You're going to grow up and be a janitor."

As if that was the worst thing a person could become.

At that point, I realized there was absolutely no way I was going to tell my friends that my dad was a janitor. I avoided the subject for as long as I could before I finally created the lie that you were a scientist. My friends were impressed, but they had no idea how empty I felt inside.

It wasn't until high school that I started caring less about the opinions of others and more about the great man you were.

Finally Argelia learned to understand her dad.

I learned that many of the same classmates, with dads who were doctors and lawyers, told stories of how these men verbally and physically abused them, abandoned them, and ignored them.

What is a parent's love, anyway? In my heart, I learned that it meant sacrifice, hard work, patience, and knowing that you would do anything for our family.

For so long, I didn't give you credit for being the man you were and for all of the things you did for us — without fanfare, without complaint, and without rest. You did these things to establish yourself in this country, to find a home in a nice neighborhood so that my sister and I could have a good education and pursue our own dreams.

But by the time I realized all of this, you were gone.

Three months before I turned 18 and one year before I became an American citizen, you died after a tragic accident. You weren't there to witness everything you had hoped for me coming to fruition.

Now, I work in the same hospital that you worked in so tirelessly for all those years.

I walk the halls and wonder if some of the faces I see were faces you saw. Because of that, I always make sure to smile and say hello to everyone — from the friendly people to the ones who just walk by without giving me a second glance. I do it because I know that's what you would've wanted.

I've never forgotten the lessons you taught me — lessons you probably had no idea you were teaching me.

Those lessons changed my life.

Argelia with her two kids, Natalia and Sebastian.

When I became a mom, I promised myself that I would pass on those lessons to my kids.

Hard work, humility, and most importantly, to place more value on a person's heart instead of their clothes, their houses, their cars, or their job titles.

Speaking of job titles, today I am proud to say that I'm the daughter of a janitor because you embodied everything that I know to be good in this world.

When my daughter graduates from high school this June, Dad, you will be in my heart, and I will take immense pride in knowing that the lessons you taught me are alive in a new generation.

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