POSITIVE Parenting

Some parents give their children an allowance, but tie it to chores they perform. This, they say, is to teach them about the relationship between work and pay. Many other parents opt to give allowances weekly or monthly, regardless of whether any chores are done.

According to some researchers, the practice of giving children an allowance can lose its significance when it is overdone. They point also to the negative effects of excessive allowances, including the unrealistic expectations that will develop among children, where children will only perform for rewards. When the rewards stop, so too the desired behaviour.

Yet, despite the negatives of rewarding children with allowances, researchers agree that the benefits significantly outweigh the negative impacts.

According to psychologist Dr Yvonnie Bailey, giving your children an allowance helps to develop proper managerial skills and gives a sense of independence and responsibility that they have to do chores in order to be rewarded.

It teaches children that if they want extra allowances they will have to work harder. It teaches them important life skills that people have to work for what they want because nothing in life is free, she said.

On the other hand, a sociology teacher at Camperdown High School, Kingston, does not believe in giving monetary reward to children, arguing that it does not contribute to their mental development. The teacher describes this as bribery, saying that children do as they are told because of what they will get, but without truly understanding the true purpose of doing the task.

"Children should be made to understand that they do not always have to be rewarded with money for everything they do," the teacher said.

Direct benefit

He cited that many parents tell their children that if they pass seven CXC subjects with distinctions they will get money or a car. This, he said, was not healthy as children should instead be taught the importance of passing all seven subjects rather than be responding to "a bribe".

The high school teacher contends that children should be rewarded with things that can directly benefit them, such as books, a trip to the park, educational or recreational activities.

He added that the ideology where children believe they must get pay starts from the point where parents believe that they must reward their children for every chore they do.