As popularly said by one of the most prominent professionals,Dr. Ravi Samuel, the best way to motivate any child would be to trigger their interest in doing the desired activity. This would make the child get involved in the process, help him/her learn and to accept the favorable or unfavorable outcome of individual actions. We, at K.R. Mangalam School, believe that the development of any child starts at the boundaries of the home as this is where the kid picks up the intrinsic values and behavioral traits that conformto our society and culture. Most of the time, to instillbehavioral obedience in a child, parents take the shortcut route of offering rewards for specific tasks that he/she performs. While there is nothing wrong with rewards, teaching a child that certain habits and works, that are ideally supposed to be a natural trait in the child,deserve rewards and that too done to save a few moments of scolding and arguments,undoubtedly results in more harm than good. We, at KRMS, realizing the potential of such damaging practices, would like to warn all parents of the outcome of such acts.
We want the parents to understand that rewardsare beneficial only when they are placedstrategically. There is a fine line of difference between rewards and bribes that people often fail to understand.While rewarding children for the activities that they outperform in is one thing, making them expect something in return of doing a simple act as homework is totally a different thing. If you as a parent, or someone you know, has the practice of getting involved in such acts, go through the below write-up to understand the negative impacts of this kind of bribing.
Bribing imparts a negative message: When you fix bribes for your young one to complete his/her homework, the kid starts to trust that the assignment he/she is being requested to do needs an entitled reward. Thus, the child will hope to be ‘paid’ or remunerated each time something is anticipated from him/her. Thisnot onlykeeps him/her of the delight of accomplishing a taskbut also since the kid’s attention stays on the material advantage, the child just won’t be able to get associated with the enthusiasm about whatever he/she is doing.
Bribing become habitual: The most dangerous type of parental blunder is the point at which you remunerate your little child for doing the fundamental things that are expected naturally from him/her without the need for such rewards. Common behavior patterns that are expected of the child becomes a feat for the parents to accomplish if the child is habituated to do so with entitled rewards that are not needed. This not only creates a sense of entitlement in the child but also tend to impart regressive habits that are immensely detrimental to the character of the child. The kid, in such cases, feels authorized to be rewarded even for those practices which are supposed to be self-rewarding.
Bribing can be demotivating: When a kid comes to trust that he/she should accomplish something only if there is a reward, this will gradually end up in resulting the child to lose the inspiration to step up and pursue interests to investigate and explore areas that generally don’t guarantee any material advantage. Steadily, the child will start to lose enthusiasm for doing even those things that once intriguedhis/her curiosity and excitement. Material rewarding can be of significantadvantage only if used sparingly for things and behavior that genuinely deserve appreciation. Too much bribing by parents merely to get over the hassle of dealing with a nagging child not only results in creating bad examples but also ingrains a profoundly regressive materialistic nature.
Bribing may prompt kids to take easy routes: When the center of attention shifts to earning rewards, your little child will attempt to use shortcuts in order to minimize efforts and maximize gains. If this becomes the habit, the kid will eventually set his/her entire focus on the end goal irrespective of the method adopted. Over the long haul, this will instigate the kid to take easy routes and will prompt poor execution. The child will then resort to portraying misconduct and wrongdoings if not rewarded for the work done. Words of appreciation will then hold no value for the child.
We hope it is quite clear as to why such a practice is detrimental to children and causes more damage than good. We, at the K.R. Mangalam School, recognized as one of the best CBSE international school in Greater Noida, understand what value the rewards hold for boosting the morale of children. But an important aspect that should never be ignored is that rewards showcase value only when they are well deserved.If parentsoverlook the right way to reward the children, it takes up the form of bribing which ultimately establishes wrong values in the growing minds; and we are very sure that none of the parents would like to see their dear kids developing a callous, selfish, and greedy attitude that will be then hard to get rid of.