Rewarding Isn 'T Spoiled': Article Analysis

In the articles “Making Allowance Count: Tips for Raising Children Who aren’t Spoiled,” by Richard Rende and “Why ‘Bribing’ Your Child with Treats doesn’t Work,” by Suzanne Gelb, both doctors explore the “coin reward system.” Each article is different from each other, though. Gelb discusses about not bribing a child with treats for getting chores done. Whereas Rende argues that giving an allowance to a child that does chores is detrimental to a child’s progression. Firstly, let’s tackle Rende’s article. Once you get passed his grammatical errors. Rende’s article is full of flaws. He says, “giving a child an allowance is a hindrance to a child’s maturation (Rende).” Instead he suggests you just “give” children the money. Here’s the issue this

When it comes to “rewarding”, the way Gelb describes it, it is “something given only for extraordinary effort (Gelb).” In addition, Gelb explains in the article that “‘bribing’ is the child expecting something for good behavior, even if, in that particular situation it’s the right thing to do (Gelb).”
The problem about bribing a kid is that this act is not conducive to the child’s maturation. When a parent “bribes” a child for accomplishing something that the child is supposed to do, this act conditions the child’s mind. The child now thinks, “Whenever I do what I’m supposed to do, I will always receive a treat.” Ingraining this thought pattern into a child is not harmonious to the real world. The real world doesn’t function in this way at all. If an adult does what is considered “social norms”, then that adult is behaving in the way they should.
In contrast however, rewarding a child is advantageous to a child’s development. Rewarding reinforces real world social norms. If someone goes out of their way to do something not expected from them, they will probably be rewarded with praise. Rewarding a child for an achievement they have worked very long and hard for is great