From Paper Charts to Purposeful Work

Hi, I’m Wesley. I’m a software engineer, but more importantly, I’m a father of five energetic children.

As our children grew (which happens so quickly!) my wife and I observed their natural desire to help. One of my most heart-warming memories is my one-year-old excitedly zooming around the floor, pushing a rag. It didn’t make anything cleaner (in fact, it probably did the opposite!), but there was something profound in that moment. It wasn't about the cleanliness of the floor; it was about the spark of a child wanting to contribute.

Like many families, our journey began on paper. We had a simple table with days of the week, names, and chores. We were determined to guide our children toward a healthy relationship with work and money.

When our kids started wanting to buy things, we saw an opportunity. We introduced a commission-based system where they could see the direct "yield" of their efforts. However, tracking those commissions on sheets of paper became its own job.

Our vision was to have "paydays" every week, but reality often got in the way. Payday would slip to every few weeks, or sometimes months. The lists of numbers we needed to add up grew longer and longer, and I began to fear we were shortchanging our children's excitement.

Beyond the logistics of tracking, I realized there's a wealth of information out there—much of it consisting of conflicting opinions. I'm on a mission to equip parents with knowledge backed by research to cut through the confusion.

We're diving deep into questions that matter: What are truly age-appropriate chores? How can I teach my kids about money without succumbing to the Overjustification Effect? How can I foster genuine financial independence at home?

By grounding Commit in these principles, we’re not just building an app; we’re building a resource for parents who want to lead with confidence and clarity.

Commit was born from the intersection of my life as a father and my career as a software engineer. I knew I could build something better. Something that provided the accurate and timely tracking that our family needed to thrive.

We’ve been using the app I built for over a year now. It has transformed our paydays from a cumbersome math chore into a joyful moment of celebrating our children’s growth. My vision now is to share what we’ve learned through trial and error with other families who want to raise resilient, intentional, and hardworking children.