It’s Mom and Dad on the court. It’s the
Allowance-Ball National Finals. Mom is playing and representing for giving an
allowance as a reward; Dad is for the Allowance-No-Matter-Whats. There’s two
seconds on the clock and both Mom and Dad have a score of 98. Mom grabs the
ball and eyes the basket from half court. A third time the attempt was made but
this time, following the coach’s advice, Mom hurtled the ball thrown from
half-court. The sand-green ball swishes through the rim and out of the net. The
buzzer rings, indicating the game is over. Mom wins! Mom is right like always.
Allowances given as rewards are actually better. They teach money management,
you are paid for results, and that allowances given as rewards benefit
everyone.
Paying children an allowance as a reward
will teach money management. Nowadays, you have to spend your money wisely. If
you invest too much money in stocks, you could end up losing all your money if
you don’t invest right. If you spend too much money on unnecessary wants, you
will be living in a dilapidated hovel. So how does an allowance that is given as
a reward and not a weekly paycheck teach money management? Well, let’s say Bob
gets $5 for washing the dishes. When you drop the five-dollar bill into his
cupped hands, he beseeches you to take him to Toys’R’Us to spend his
hard-earned cash on a small remote controlled car. A day later, his friend Tom
asks Bob to the movies, but he is out of money. Now, the racecar is stuck in a
big cardboard box with the rest of Bob’s toys... the toys that Bob doesn’t play
with anymore. Money management would help Bob so that he doesn’t spend his
money on whatever new toy comes out. Instead, he would think about what to
spend his money on and that way, he could use his money wisely.
Allowances that are rewards teach kids that
they are paid for results, not just effort. This means that if Bob doesn’t get
the job done right, he doesn’t get his money. If Bob decided to wash the dishes
but he wasn’t feeling so well and just tossed water onto the plates, he
wouldn’t get his five dollars. Now that he learned his lesson, he knows that
just because he tried, it doesn’t mean he gets rewarded for trying to do his
chore. He actually has to complete his job successfully in order to receive his
reward.
Do you think that rewards will only benefit
your child? You are COMPLETELY wrong! If your child is doing chores for a
reward, he is helping everyone. He is doing many chores, willingly helping you
clean and helping you cut grass from dim dawn to dark. Your child has an
adequate amount of money and you get to enjoy that relaxing moment on the
living room couch that you have been longing for. Also, when your child gets his
reward, he doesn’t have to spend it all. He could break up his reward money so
that some of it goes to long term savings (for college), some go to short term
savings (for a $100 pair of shoes), some go to charities, and some go to
spending right away. Not only is your child helping himself, but also other
people that you might not even know!!!
You’re probably still pondering if you
should give your child a reward-based allowance. You may think that rewards
will change your child’s mind so that when he does a good deed, he will want
money in return. If your child does become greedy, he will have to do more chores.
This will make him do the chores really quickly. Speed leads to poor quality.
You and your intimidating eyes look upon him with annoyance, and though you
taught him what to do and how to do it, you could not teach him to take his
time. Admonish him that next time, if the same thing happens he will not get
money. If a reward allowance will teach and benefit so much, what can go wrong?
Your child won’t even be addicted to Ben Franklins! Start a reward-based
allowance today! The couch will be your friend in a week guaranteed!
Written by Nicholas Ng
