Tennis legend Serena Williams and tech mogul husband Alexis Ohanian are taking a refreshingly grounded approach to raising their daughter, Olympia.
They are focusing on instilling a strong work ethic and a profound understanding of financial responsibility.
Ohanian reveals that, together with Williams, they decided to convince their 7-year-old daughter to start working for a weekly wage.
Aside from showering their little one with endless luxuries, Ohanian said that they devised a structured system designed to teach Olympia the fundamental link between effort and reward, a lesson both parents value deeply from their own upbringings.
Alexis Ohanian and daughter Olympia//Instagram
At the heart of their unique parenting strategy is Olympia’s allowance, a modest $7 [Sh904] a week, contingent upon her completion of specific household chores.
According to him, this is not just a handout; it’s a meticulously negotiated “contract” designed by himself.
In a playful yet effective demonstration of real-world negotiations, Serena Williams even served as Olympia’s “lawyer” during the allowance talks, while her grandmother took on the role of Olympia’s “counsel,” which Ohanian humorously noted was really frustrating.
“For Olympia. She has an allowance. She gets $7-a-week; Serena was her lawyer in the negotiation. I drew up a real contract which we negotiated. Her mom was her counsel, which was really frustrating,” Ohanian said in a podcast, and later posted a clip of the same on his X page.
Under this domestic agreement, Olympia has clear responsibilities: she feeds the dog, puts her clothes in the hamper, and makes her bed. These duties are expected five days a week, with Olympia’s mom successfully negotiating weekends off for her daughter, mirroring a standard work-week dynamic.
“She got to feed the dog. She got to put her clothes in the hamper. She makes her bed. So, she does that 5 days a week. Mom negotiated weekends off. We’re trying to create that flywheel between doing the work and getting the money and then understanding that there are things you could want,” Ohanian described the ultimate goal behind this system.
The effectiveness of this system became particularly evident through a relatable anecdote involving Olympia’s desire for a Tamagotchi watch.
Having diligently saved “quite a bit of money, probably almost $100,” Olympia set her sights on the $125 toy. When she realized she didn’t have enough, Ohanian encouraged her to “embrace that feeling,” prompting her to calculate how many more weeks of allowance she would need – a practical lesson in budgeting and delayed gratification. After patiently waiting for three more weeks, Olympia finally acquired her coveted watch, emptying her “bank” in the process.
Serena Williams and husband//Instagram
However, the real lesson arrived swiftly. Just a week after getting the Tamagotchi, Olympia “stopped caring about it”. A couple of weeks later, another desire emerged: An American Girl doll dress. Eagerly, she went to her piggy bank, only to find it empty. This moment of realization, described by Ohanian, is crucial. Despite Olympia’s attempts to use “cute puppy eyes” to sway her father, Ohanian emphasizes the importance of her feeling “that little bit of pain” of having to “wait two more weeks for that paycheck” to “start to remember because I do this work, I get this money”.
This deliberate approach stems from the personal experiences of both Serena and Alexis. As Ohanian explains, “Neither Serena nor I grew up with wealth and so 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.”
Alexis Ohanian has openly discussed these parenting strategies on various platforms, such as interviews and social media posts, emphasizing the importance of teaching financial literacy and a strong work ethic to his daughter.
Serena Williams and husband//Instagram
