by Tiffany Jakubaitis

Created on: June 08, 2010   Last Updated: June 09, 2010

Bribery is a harsh way to state paying your children to do something or taking away something as punishment.  If you change the word bribe to reward, still with the same outcome, then yes, they should be bribed to do household chores. 

Chores teach a child responsibility.  In our house, there are everyday chores that our four kids do not get paid for, such as cleaning their room and picking up after themselves.  If their belongings aren’t picked up when they are done with it and after a gentle reminder, they are taken away, put in a bag and taken to goodwill. 

This teaches them that if they don’t pick it up, they could do without it, therefore someone else could benefit better from it.  If this is considered bribing them to clean up after themselves, then so be it.  I simply call it accountability.

Then there are the chores that have been assigned to all four children for a certain amount of money.  They each get age appropriate chores and an age appropriate reward.  For example, weekly, our 4 year old is responsible for feeding the dogs two nights and wiping down the table three nights, and he can make $1.50.  Our 11 year old is assigned dishes three nights, cleaning up after the dogs one day and vacuuming once.  With that, she can earn up to $5 a week.

Once the “bribery” is earned, there comes responsibility.  The children learn what money is, what they can do with it, and how to save it.  If there is something they see in the store that they want but don’t necessarily need, we simply remind them that they should save up their money they earn in order to buy it.  The excitement on their faces, once they have the money saved up and we take them to get whatever it may be, is priceless. 

“Bribery”, or rewarding children, with the outcome of teaching responsibility does not “constitute a crime” as stated in Wikepedia.  It doesn’t mean that you don’t love or nurture your children.  

I was given an allowance as a child and didn’t grow up to be a corrupt individual.  I’ve been to pediatricians and child therapists who have all suggested the reward system to avoid bad behavior, so what makes this any different?

In conclusion, I believe that giving children an incentive to help out more around the house is a good opportunity for them to feel a sense of accomplishment, not to mention it allows parents more time to spend having fun with the kids rather than have the extra cleaning to do.

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