When and How You Should Reward Your Children

There are ways to reward a child when they display good behavior and then there are ways to over-use reward systems leaving nothing but high expectations for the child. It sounds odd, since parents are the ones who should have high expectations for their children. If parents reward their children on too many occasions, it can turn into a bribe, provoking the children to demand a reward for acts of responsibility.

To make things a little clearer, a perfect example, is when parents reward children for doing things they would normally have to do and have done in the past without an incentive. Do you remember how we hated to clean our rooms as children? As adults, this is an easy task, but for children it is dreadful and takes up too much of their play time. The truth of the matter is, this is something that teaches them responsibility and also sends the message that they have to work at things to gain accomplishments. After long days of yelling and pleading with a child or teen to clean the room, parents sometimes slip in an incentive or reward to actually perform the task. The truth of the matter is, the room is the child's own personal space. The child is the one who made the mess and is expected to clean up what they created. If a reward, or bribe is put in effect, you will have many more years of arguments and higher rewards demanded. Plain and simple, apply a consequence if they do not clean their room. If the biggest thing holding them back from cleaning the room is based around play time, then remove their toys until they perform their chore.