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| Yes | 25% | 60 votes | Total: 244 votes | |
| No | 75% | 184 votes |
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The world around us revolves around the system of rewards and punishments. Right from the religion to ordinary dealings in one's life, the foremost motivational factor either remains the fear of punishment or greed for some reward. Why would our children be any different? Nevertheless, the choice of words like bribe and fear may take some minds to defensive mode without realizing the fact that no matter what title you chose, a reward remains a reward. This reward may even be as simple as his / her favourite candy or as taxing as an extra visit to the zoo.
Those who object to motivate their children by offering them with some reward, tend to challenge the wisdom of the Almighty Creator (God). The one, who wrote the user's manual of the complex minds he created, chose to bribe the mankind, with news of pleasant life after death, if we obey his commands during our earthly life. Why shouldn't we follow the same scheme to keep the young souls on track? In fact that is what works best. I have yet to meet some parents who would not use this methodology intentionally of unintentionally. It comes natural to parenthood.
I believe that parents are responsible for preparation of their children for the challenges of practical life. One thing that they must learn is to value hard earned money in their life. From that perspective, there is no harm in rewarding (bribing) your children with some petty cash, for their hard work. This will also teach them the basics of usual relationships of employee and employer in their lives to come. It is most certain that if your child is offered a reward, he would usually negotiate its terms. He would also utilize his previous experiences and try to score better terms next time. He also learns to take responsibility for the things he was paid to do. In short - rewarding him with money for his hard work would always be a lesson for his practical life, that is not going to be very different.
I would summarize my argument with the note that bribing your children is synonymous to rewarding your children for all practical purposes. It would be very natural to reward your child for his good deeds and hard work as we expect the same for our selves from the heavenly God (the Almighty) as well as the worldly gods (mostly our employers). Most importantly, bribing your child would be rewarding for him in his life to come, in many ways.
Learn more about this author, Sohail Ashraf.
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No
It is not necessary to bribe children to help with household chores. As part of a family, children should be expected to help out around the house. Chores help teach kids about a good work ethic and responsibility for one's property. Bribery of anything, from chocolate and candy to cell phones really doesn't teach kids anything except how to manipulate a given situation.
Now, I'm not suggested that children should be doing any hard labor around the house. They don't need to caulk tiles in the bathroom or build doghouses on their own. But even at a young age, children are capable of helping around the house.
Kids around the ages of 4-7 can help with the following chores:
Picking up their own toys
Clearing their dinner plates
Sweeping the kitchen floor
Dusting
Kids aged 8-12 can be given even more responsibility, including:
Making their bed
Walking the dog
Taking the garbage to the curb
Drying the dishes
Teenagers will likely push back on added chores, but now is when they should really want to show their parents how responsible they are by:
Loading and unloading the dishwasher
Vacuuming
Babysitting younger siblings
Laundry duty
Cleaning the bathrooms
Mowing the lawn
Doing chores together, and making them fun, is a great way to get little kids involved. Show your children that you're proud of them when they pick up their toys or clear their dishes from the table. Don't give them candy as a reward, instead say "Well done" or "Thank you for helping." They'll learn quickly and may want to help around the house even more.
As kids get older, chores are seen more as work and less as a game. But just be honest with your children and explain how much of a help they are being when they take out the garbage or vacuum the living room. They may complain, but they should still pitch in without being bribed with a trip to the mall or a new video game.
In order to instill a sense of pride in a job well done, while also building financial responsibility, I do think parents should offer their children a weekly allowance. I don't consider this a bribe, because the allowance should be conditional upon completion of the child's chores and schoolwork. Rather than being a monetary handout, the allowance is something that needs to be earned each week. Children will quickly learn and understand the connection between the work that they are doing at home and the allowance they receive.
Learn more about this author, Krista Jansen.
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