Have your parents ever offered you money or other incentives for picking up a book?
Do you like to read for fun? If so, what do you enjoy about it? If not, why not?
Imagine someone offered you money just to read a book. Would that change your attitude toward reading?
In the guest essay “I Paid My Child $100 to Read a Book,” Mireille Silcoff, a cultural critic, author and parent, gives her account of doing just that. She begins:
This summer, I paid my 12-year-old daughter $100 to read a book. As far as mom maneuvers go, it was definitely last ditch and the size of the payout was certainly excessive. I can’t say I am proud — but I am extremely satisfied. Because the plan worked. It worked so well, I’d suggest other parents of reluctant readers open their wallets and bribe their kids to read, too.
My daughter is a whip-smart kid, definitely smarter than I was at 12. But until I resorted to bribery, she’d never read an entire chapter book for pleasure. She’d read books for school, but getting her to do that was like pulling teeth, and on her own she’d read a few graphic novels and listened to the audiobooks of the “Harry Potter” series. None of those activities became a gateway to any habit of what I might call classic deep reading — with two eyes in front of paper, and nothing else going on.
When I faced this truth a few months ago, it felt like a parenting failure. Even though we’d read many storybooks when she was younger and we live in a house stuffed with books, I’d not managed to instill one of life’s fundamental pleasures in my kid.
Just before the pandemic, a depressing federal survey revealed how much reading for pleasure had dropped among children. Almost 30 percent of 13-year-olds said they “never or hardly ever” read for fun, a substantial increase from the 8 percent who said the same roughly 35 years earlier. Given that screen time among children also increased significantly during the pandemic, it’s fair to conclude that leisure reading is an increasingly endangered pursuit among children.
She also describes her progress, or lack thereof, in persuading her daughter to give reading a chance:
So I campaigned. I told her she needed to read because novels are the best way to learn about how people’s insides work. She said she could learn more from watching the people she followed on social media, who were all about spilling their insides.
I said books offered storytelling. She said, “Netflix.”
I said books taught history. She said, “The internet.”
I said reading would help her understand herself and she said, “Um, no thank you. I’ll just live.”
I promised, extravagantly, that I’d buy her all the books she wanted and construct bookshelves in her room, so that she could see the spines of all the books she loved from her bed. She said, “Mama, welcome to your dream.”
I could not win our debates, I realized, because few of my daughters’ arguments against reading seemed wrong to me. Yes, reading is a way to broaden your universe and discover new worlds — but so is the entire internet. So these discussions, which annoyed both of us, would inevitably whittle down to me wheedling about cognition and attention and how reading is “good for you.”
My students, read the entire essay and then tell me:
Do you recognize yourself or any of your peers in Ms. Silcoff’s portrayal of her daughter, their relationship or their conversation about reading? Where are the similarities? Does Ms. Silcoff remind you of a parent, teacher, librarian or other adult in your life?
To what extent do you agree that “leisure reading is an increasingly endangered pursuit among children”? Is this true of you, your friends or your siblings? How worried should we be about how much reading for pleasure has dropped among young people?
Do you think that offering one’s 12-year-old child $100 for finishing a book is a good idea? Do you think Ms. Silcoff’s daughter might read more often now — and without the financial incentive? Why or why not?
Have your parents ever offered you money or other incentives for reading? Did it work?
Ms. Silcoff’s daughter points out that book-filled shelves are a dream she and her mother do not share. Have you ever felt that a parent or other family member wanted you to follow in their footsteps or develop a passion for something they loved? If so, how did you handle it? What advice do you have for another teenager in this situation?
What book or books would you suggest for a reluctant reader, like Ms. Silcoff’s daughter? Why?
Here goes my two cents: Opening a new book is like walking into a new world and it is like getting lost in a fiery world and in a world full of beautiful colors, reading is something everyone does daily. If a parent is paying their children to read it creates a Reward-based mindset which isn't amazing. When in school, teachers will not pay your child because they read a book. I assume the child is in 6th grade, when I was in 6th grade I never read and it caused problems later in school. My teachers made me read for ten minuteseach day, I couldn't focus because no one had ever really made me read. Ms.Silcoff says “I said books offered storytelling. She said, “Netflix.” I said books taught history. She said, “The internet.” Yes, I agree that Netflix does offer a FORM of storytelling but it's nothing like the stories in books. Many movies are based on books, however, movies take out information in the books. In The Hunger Games, for example, Katniss Everdeen in the book—she loses her hearing in her left ear. It was a small detail but it made you look at Katniss differently. The movie never portrayed that. I do believe Ms. Silcoffs daughter will read more —only for the money—. Additionally the money issue, your daughter will now expect 100+ dollars for every book that she reads and that's just not realistic for the long run. Thus you should not pay your children to read. I strongly believe that leisure reading is endangered, and it is a problem. Many students I know hate reading with a passion. Most of my friends assume it is a waste of time because they are not learning things to help them keep up with the real world. However, it is exactly the opposite. Reading is a gateway for students to learn and grow through the stories that keep them thinking and wondering. Beyond that, reading should be something that students have a positive attitude towards because it is such a necessary factor to almost any job and just life in general. With technology doing most of the thinking for us, it is easy to get caught up in not really processing what we are doing, which is something reading helps develop. I love reading since it is a way for me to focus on a world outside of my life and I like the way that it challenges my mind to learn about different cultures and places. In the article, Ms. Silcoff uses bribery as a tool to force her daughter to read. I don’t agree with this method - although I understand why it was necessary - because it is not creating a good environment for someone to want to read. We need to work on surrounding leisure reading with a more welcoming tone to encourage more strong readers.
Many people who don't read for simple enjoyment tend to have similar opinions of Ms. Silcoff's daughter, as I personally was one of them not too long ago. For me, just a few years back, I absolutely despised reading. I'm not saying I didn’t read at all, but the things I would read were typically mangas or eye-catching graphic novels, as they were more familiar to me and I knew I would enjoy them. In spite of that, when it came to reading chapter books, or anything that didn’t sound or look interesting, I just mulled it over. My problem was the things recommended to me to read, felt childish, in a way that made it feel a bit condescending to read because of how basic and bland it was. The reading level would be low with a plot that was minimal so that young readers would keep up with it, but for me, it felt like I was a snail trying to travel across the ocean. It just didn’t keep me engaged. On top of that, I also stereotyped certain genres, like fantasy. Whenever I saw a fantasy book, I always assumed it was for babies or little kids because magic was one of the most common things I’d see in children's stories, also causing the stories to be similar because of it. Of course, I know better now, but I can see where Ms. Slicoffs daughter is coming from, and it would make sense why others would be against or hesitant to start reading if all they read were things that didn’t interest them.
Reading should be a choice you choose for yourself without any physical rewards or incentives, not an activity that’s viewed the same as a chore. The appeal of reading is that you willingly dive into a new world of your choice. Having a financial incentive completely disregards this. Offering bribery to encourage children to read books is like putting a bandaid on a gaping wound. The child’s urge to read books won’t last long once you take away that financial incentive, as it's setting an unhealthy precedent for reading to a child at a young age, and they’re unlikely to continue reading later on in life without it. To add on, it’s unlikely that they’d put in the effort to comprehend what they’re reading and books would only appear as words on a page to them, not a means of imagination and discovery. I think Ms. Silcoff’s daughter would read often with the financial incentive, although she would revert to not reading anything without it. Ultimately, this would cause her daughter to read not for her pleasure, but for financial gain. Ms. Silcoff recounts that before she set a financial incentive for reading, her daughter would only “read books for school”, and that she “never read an entire chapter book for pleasure” (Silcoff, as cited in Doyne). She only started reading due to the prospect of gaining money. Because of this, once you take away that incentive when she’s older in hopes of her reading on her own, she would most likely be extremely upset and protest by not reading.
Reading isn’t just about turning pages for a reward but building a love for learning that lasts a lifetime. There shouldn't be any incentive to read books. Ms.Silcoffs daughter could be a fake reader because her daughter isn’t doing anything to prove it. When I was younger my mom also made me read but money wasn't involved. After I’d finished reading my mom would have me write a summary of what I read and ask an extra question. This was much more beneficial for me than if my mom just gave me $100. My mom doesn’t do this with me anymore but I still read now. Yes, I do it for school, but I also don't feel obligated because I have built stamina. I acknowledge that people need motivation to read. Yet if Ms.Silcoffs daughter is only reading for the money she most likely won't continue to read if there's no money involved. Beyond that–her daughter may get too used to always being rewarded–and not fully digest the text she's reading because she's not paid for that specifically when the text says how her daughter wouldn’t read for pleasure and only for school until bribery. Her daughter could be an avid reader because when the right book is chosen It shouldn’t feel like a chore. A true love for reading offers far more than any incentive could.
Making your kids be able to only read by paying them with money may be successful in the short term part of their life’s, but in the long term part of their life’s I feel as if it will negatively impact them and how they perceive learning. I feel both happy and guilty whenever I decide to do my work and not just finish a reading assignment. On the first hand, I feel happy whenever I get to finish my work as I usually get complimented about how good my quality of work is, like getting most answers right on my math quiz compared to everybody else. On the other hand I feel a bit of a guilty-ness pleasure as I sometimes only do good quality work just to get complimented. I feel my situation is the same as getting paid to work or in this case read and I feel like this is the path of failure for me and those who get paid to learn. Instead of learning just to better themselves and hopefully grow smarter and to grow their abilities to learn from their mistakes, the main incentive when you get paid to learn is the amount of money you get. This sets a bad example for rewarding yourself or others as not only money is finite, but the form of money I believe is a bad way of rewarding someone because It just leads to them only in the pursuit of money instead of what they truly are passionate about.
While paying for her child to read might have short term success, I believe it could cause a long term negative impact on her attitude towards reading. The mother from a young age is correlating reading with a reward, making it seem to the child that reading is a task, not something that should be done for fun and the joy of reading itself. Later down the road, there might be a chance she is turned away from reading entirely if there is no reward. Reading is a dying art in the modern generation with the rise of internet and social media. Less and less people are reading, something that is healthy and helps strengthen your mind. Instead of forcing a child to read for a prize, it should be an enjoyment that is nurtured into a child from a young age. I know this is much harder said than done, and not everyone will like reading, but many parents today barely try to promote reading to their child, which could have permeant or life long impacts on their cognitive skill and comprehension skills. Reading is vital, and while is may seem convenient, paying a child to read will not have the intended effect.
While paying children to read books may cause them to read more, it may also make them think that they can not do something to get a reward, hold out on eating veggies at dinner, maybe stop doing homework in the hopes that they’ll get some money, this can become a slippery slope of not doing what they’re supposed, and if you want to get them to do it, all you have to do is pay. It also causes them to view reading as something that can make money, not something that can be enjoyed. They might start to view reading as doing a job, something they have to get done in order to get paid, which can discourage them from really enjoying the books they’re reading. They might even start to skip the books all together, say they read them and get some money for it. So while paying your child can get them to read more, it can also start something negative: a view of books as something to get through so they can get some quick money.
I believe that paying a child to read will not have the intended results. Paying the child makes it seem like reading a chore, which prevents the child from truly reading for pleasure. Once the reward for reading disappears, so will the desire to do so. Instead on should aim to foster a love for reading at a young age by introducing your child to various styles of literature—nonfiction, graphic novels, and more. It is best for a love of reading to develop naturally rather than trying to force it by bribing a child.
My parents didn't verbally tell me to go read if I wasn't doing anything productive. Instead, every night before I went to bed, they'd read bits and pieces of chapter books until I finished the whole thing. They'd then ask me questions about it, trying to exercise my brain each night before I got tired and drifted off to bed. They stopped doing this when I got to middle school but didn't fully notice what they were doing until I was in the 7th grade.
I believe that $100 for a 12-year-old is kind of insane, especially for them just to read a book. I know that when you're young, you don't value learning and education like an adult does until you actually think through and realize how much of your life depends on your education, but I don't think that giving your child $100 for each time they read a book would be a good habit. You're just giving the child insane amounts of money just to do something that they should already be doing in the first place.
I’m no parent, but I don’t know why parents would reward their kids for something as simple as reading a book. Parents should have their children learn responsibilities by putting reading first. Children getting money for reading a book is an irresponsible move as a parent. When I was growing up in my household the reward for reading was; nothing. My parents told me and my siblings that reading was important, so it comes first before anything else. Yes, money may help children read more often, but what happens when you ask them to do something else? For your children its basically free money, children should know in life sometimes you have to do things with no reward. I believe that children shouldn’t be getting a , “special treat” for something as simple as reading a book.
With the advancements of new technology and new things coming out so often to captivate our minds, reading is more and more of an afterthought. Modern-day people see technology as the gateway to the internet where they can find anything they think of and want to look up. The internet also contains access to games and videos people like to play and watch for entertainment when bored and have nothing better to do. I still enjoy reading books but technology merged with my personality as I aged up and I needed to use computers more for school work. I could still get back into a reading mode if I wanted to, but first, I would need to set myself a set of guidelines to follow to get back into reading over using a computer. I think we should be quite concerned because with new technology comes cons such as brain rot Gen Z and Gen A kids watch nowadays instead of leveling up their vocabulary and wit from reading. Watching brainrot is fun for now but that decision will come back to bite in the future.
Parents shouldn’t pay their children to read because the value of reading is more meaningful than just earning money. Reading opens up new ideas, sparks curiosity, and helps kids develop a deeper understanding of the world. When we attach a reward to it, we risk turning what should be an enjoyable and enriching activity into just another task to complete.
Instead of paying for pages read, parents can focus on creating a love of books by encouraging children to explore topics they’re interested in. Whether it’s a thrilling adventure, a fascinating science book, or a story about a favorite character, letting kids choose what they read can naturally motivate them. Sharing books as a family and discussing stories together can also make reading more enjoyable and meaningful.
Rather than just offering money, parents can support their child’s curiosity and help them see reading as a fun and valuable part of life. This helps build a lifelong love of learning that goes beyond any temporary reward.
Kids, especially at a young age, learn by doing things repeatedly. So if you pay your kid for reading by themselves, they expect that payment again, and again, and again. It's better to help them learn by rewarding them with small thing, like screen time, or candy. This will not effect your kid when they grow up, since the effect these reward has on your child get smaller and smaller every year. For example, you child might like to have a diet coke if he finishes a book. This prize will not result in them expecting it every time, since they will get their own money someday and will learn not to spend their money on treats. But bribing your child with 100$ means that the child will be extremely happy for a day or two, and then expect a reward every time, since the felling of spend large amounts of money never wears off.
Imagine someone offered you money just to read a book. Would that change your attitude toward reading?
In the guest essay “I Paid My Child $100 to Read a Book,” Mireille Silcoff, a cultural critic, author and parent, gives her account of doing just that. She begins:
This summer, I paid my 12-year-old daughter $100 to read a book. As far as mom maneuvers go, it was definitely last ditch and the size of the payout was certainly excessive. I can’t say I am proud — but I am extremely satisfied. Because the plan worked. It worked so well, I’d suggest other parents of reluctant readers open their wallets and bribe their kids to read, too.
My daughter is a whip-smart kid, definitely smarter than I was at 12. But until I resorted to bribery, she’d never read an entire chapter book for pleasure. She’d read books for school, but getting her to do that was like pulling teeth, and on her own she’d read a few graphic novels and listened to the audiobooks of the “Harry Potter” series. None of those activities became a gateway to any habit of what I might call classic deep reading — with two eyes in front of paper, and nothing else going on.
When I faced this truth a few months ago, it felt like a parenting failure. Even though we’d read many storybooks when she was younger and we live in a house stuffed with books, I’d not managed to instill one of life’s fundamental pleasures in my kid.
Just before the pandemic, a depressing federal survey revealed how much reading for pleasure had dropped among children. Almost 30 percent of 13-year-olds said they “never or hardly ever” read for fun, a substantial increase from the 8 percent who said the same roughly 35 years earlier. Given that screen time among children also increased significantly during the pandemic, it’s fair to conclude that leisure reading is an increasingly endangered pursuit among children.
She also describes her progress, or lack thereof, in persuading her daughter to give reading a chance:
So I campaigned. I told her she needed to read because novels are the best way to learn about how people’s insides work. She said she could learn more from watching the people she followed on social media, who were all about spilling their insides.
I said books offered storytelling. She said, “Netflix.”
I said books taught history. She said, “The internet.”
I said reading would help her understand herself and she said, “Um, no thank you. I’ll just live.”
I promised, extravagantly, that I’d buy her all the books she wanted and construct bookshelves in her room, so that she could see the spines of all the books she loved from her bed. She said, “Mama, welcome to your dream.”
I could not win our debates, I realized, because few of my daughters’ arguments against reading seemed wrong to me. Yes, reading is a way to broaden your universe and discover new worlds — but so is the entire internet. So these discussions, which annoyed both of us, would inevitably whittle down to me wheedling about cognition and attention and how reading is “good for you.”
My students, read the entire essay and then tell me:
Do you recognize yourself or any of your peers in Ms. Silcoff’s portrayal of her daughter, their relationship or their conversation about reading? Where are the similarities? Does Ms. Silcoff remind you of a parent, teacher, librarian or other adult in your life?
To what extent do you agree that “leisure reading is an increasingly endangered pursuit among children”? Is this true of you, your friends or your siblings? How worried should we be about how much reading for pleasure has dropped among young people?
Do you think that offering one’s 12-year-old child $100 for finishing a book is a good idea? Do you think Ms. Silcoff’s daughter might read more often now — and without the financial incentive? Why or why not?
Have your parents ever offered you money or other incentives for reading? Did it work?
Ms. Silcoff’s daughter points out that book-filled shelves are a dream she and her mother do not share. Have you ever felt that a parent or other family member wanted you to follow in their footsteps or develop a passion for something they loved? If so, how did you handle it? What advice do you have for another teenager in this situation?
What book or books would you suggest for a reluctant reader, like Ms. Silcoff’s daughter? Why?
Here goes my two cents: Opening a new book is like walking into a new world and it is like getting lost in a fiery world and in a world full of beautiful colors, reading is something everyone does daily. If a parent is paying their children to read it creates a Reward-based mindset which isn't amazing. When in school, teachers will not pay your child because they read a book. I assume the child is in 6th grade, when I was in 6th grade I never read and it caused problems later in school. My teachers made me read for ten minuteseach day, I couldn't focus because no one had ever really made me read. Ms.Silcoff says “I said books offered storytelling. She said, “Netflix.” I said books taught history. She said, “The internet.” Yes, I agree that Netflix does offer a FORM of storytelling but it's nothing like the stories in books. Many movies are based on books, however, movies take out information in the books. In The Hunger Games, for example, Katniss Everdeen in the book—she loses her hearing in her left ear. It was a small detail but it made you look at Katniss differently. The movie never portrayed that. I do believe Ms. Silcoffs daughter will read more —only for the money—. Additionally the money issue, your daughter will now expect 100+ dollars for every book that she reads and that's just not realistic for the long run. Thus you should not pay your children to read. I strongly believe that leisure reading is endangered, and it is a problem. Many students I know hate reading with a passion. Most of my friends assume it is a waste of time because they are not learning things to help them keep up with the real world. However, it is exactly the opposite. Reading is a gateway for students to learn and grow through the stories that keep them thinking and wondering. Beyond that, reading should be something that students have a positive attitude towards because it is such a necessary factor to almost any job and just life in general. With technology doing most of the thinking for us, it is easy to get caught up in not really processing what we are doing, which is something reading helps develop. I love reading since it is a way for me to focus on a world outside of my life and I like the way that it challenges my mind to learn about different cultures and places. In the article, Ms. Silcoff uses bribery as a tool to force her daughter to read. I don’t agree with this method - although I understand why it was necessary - because it is not creating a good environment for someone to want to read. We need to work on surrounding leisure reading with a more welcoming tone to encourage more strong readers.
Many people who don't read for simple enjoyment tend to have similar opinions of Ms. Silcoff's daughter, as I personally was one of them not too long ago. For me, just a few years back, I absolutely despised reading. I'm not saying I didn’t read at all, but the things I would read were typically mangas or eye-catching graphic novels, as they were more familiar to me and I knew I would enjoy them. In spite of that, when it came to reading chapter books, or anything that didn’t sound or look interesting, I just mulled it over. My problem was the things recommended to me to read, felt childish, in a way that made it feel a bit condescending to read because of how basic and bland it was. The reading level would be low with a plot that was minimal so that young readers would keep up with it, but for me, it felt like I was a snail trying to travel across the ocean. It just didn’t keep me engaged. On top of that, I also stereotyped certain genres, like fantasy. Whenever I saw a fantasy book, I always assumed it was for babies or little kids because magic was one of the most common things I’d see in children's stories, also causing the stories to be similar because of it. Of course, I know better now, but I can see where Ms. Slicoffs daughter is coming from, and it would make sense why others would be against or hesitant to start reading if all they read were things that didn’t interest them.
Reading should be a choice you choose for yourself without any physical rewards or incentives, not an activity that’s viewed the same as a chore. The appeal of reading is that you willingly dive into a new world of your choice. Having a financial incentive completely disregards this. Offering bribery to encourage children to read books is like putting a bandaid on a gaping wound. The child’s urge to read books won’t last long once you take away that financial incentive, as it's setting an unhealthy precedent for reading to a child at a young age, and they’re unlikely to continue reading later on in life without it. To add on, it’s unlikely that they’d put in the effort to comprehend what they’re reading and books would only appear as words on a page to them, not a means of imagination and discovery. I think Ms. Silcoff’s daughter would read often with the financial incentive, although she would revert to not reading anything without it. Ultimately, this would cause her daughter to read not for her pleasure, but for financial gain. Ms. Silcoff recounts that before she set a financial incentive for reading, her daughter would only “read books for school”, and that she “never read an entire chapter book for pleasure” (Silcoff, as cited in Doyne). She only started reading due to the prospect of gaining money. Because of this, once you take away that incentive when she’s older in hopes of her reading on her own, she would most likely be extremely upset and protest by not reading.
Reading isn’t just about turning pages for a reward but building a love for learning that lasts a lifetime. There shouldn't be any incentive to read books. Ms.Silcoffs daughter could be a fake reader because her daughter isn’t doing anything to prove it. When I was younger my mom also made me read but money wasn't involved. After I’d finished reading my mom would have me write a summary of what I read and ask an extra question. This was much more beneficial for me than if my mom just gave me $100. My mom doesn’t do this with me anymore but I still read now. Yes, I do it for school, but I also don't feel obligated because I have built stamina. I acknowledge that people need motivation to read. Yet if Ms.Silcoffs daughter is only reading for the money she most likely won't continue to read if there's no money involved. Beyond that–her daughter may get too used to always being rewarded–and not fully digest the text she's reading because she's not paid for that specifically when the text says how her daughter wouldn’t read for pleasure and only for school until bribery. Her daughter could be an avid reader because when the right book is chosen It shouldn’t feel like a chore. A true love for reading offers far more than any incentive could.
Making your kids be able to only read by paying them with money may be successful in the short term part of their life’s, but in the long term part of their life’s I feel as if it will negatively impact them and how they perceive learning. I feel both happy and guilty whenever I decide to do my work and not just finish a reading assignment. On the first hand, I feel happy whenever I get to finish my work as I usually get complimented about how good my quality of work is, like getting most answers right on my math quiz compared to everybody else. On the other hand I feel a bit of a guilty-ness pleasure as I sometimes only do good quality work just to get complimented. I feel my situation is the same as getting paid to work or in this case read and I feel like this is the path of failure for me and those who get paid to learn. Instead of learning just to better themselves and hopefully grow smarter and to grow their abilities to learn from their mistakes, the main incentive when you get paid to learn is the amount of money you get. This sets a bad example for rewarding yourself or others as not only money is finite, but the form of money I believe is a bad way of rewarding someone because It just leads to them only in the pursuit of money instead of what they truly are passionate about.
While paying for her child to read might have short term success, I believe it could cause a long term negative impact on her attitude towards reading. The mother from a young age is correlating reading with a reward, making it seem to the child that reading is a task, not something that should be done for fun and the joy of reading itself. Later down the road, there might be a chance she is turned away from reading entirely if there is no reward. Reading is a dying art in the modern generation with the rise of internet and social media. Less and less people are reading, something that is healthy and helps strengthen your mind. Instead of forcing a child to read for a prize, it should be an enjoyment that is nurtured into a child from a young age. I know this is much harder said than done, and not everyone will like reading, but many parents today barely try to promote reading to their child, which could have permeant or life long impacts on their cognitive skill and comprehension skills. Reading is vital, and while is may seem convenient, paying a child to read will not have the intended effect.
While paying children to read books may cause them to read more, it may also make them think that they can not do something to get a reward, hold out on eating veggies at dinner, maybe stop doing homework in the hopes that they’ll get some money, this can become a slippery slope of not doing what they’re supposed, and if you want to get them to do it, all you have to do is pay. It also causes them to view reading as something that can make money, not something that can be enjoyed. They might start to view reading as doing a job, something they have to get done in order to get paid, which can discourage them from really enjoying the books they’re reading. They might even start to skip the books all together, say they read them and get some money for it. So while paying your child can get them to read more, it can also start something negative: a view of books as something to get through so they can get some quick money.
I believe that paying a child to read will not have the intended results. Paying the child makes it seem like reading a chore, which prevents the child from truly reading for pleasure. Once the reward for reading disappears, so will the desire to do so. Instead on should aim to foster a love for reading at a young age by introducing your child to various styles of literature—nonfiction, graphic novels, and more. It is best for a love of reading to develop naturally rather than trying to force it by bribing a child.
My parents didn't verbally tell me to go read if I wasn't doing anything productive. Instead, every night before I went to bed, they'd read bits and pieces of chapter books until I finished the whole thing. They'd then ask me questions about it, trying to exercise my brain each night before I got tired and drifted off to bed. They stopped doing this when I got to middle school but didn't fully notice what they were doing until I was in the 7th grade.
I believe that $100 for a 12-year-old is kind of insane, especially for them just to read a book. I know that when you're young, you don't value learning and education like an adult does until you actually think through and realize how much of your life depends on your education, but I don't think that giving your child $100 for each time they read a book would be a good habit. You're just giving the child insane amounts of money just to do something that they should already be doing in the first place.
I’m no parent, but I don’t know why parents would reward their kids for something as simple as reading a book. Parents should have their children learn responsibilities by putting reading first. Children getting money for reading a book is an irresponsible move as a parent. When I was growing up in my household the reward for reading was; nothing. My parents told me and my siblings that reading was important, so it comes first before anything else. Yes, money may help children read more often, but what happens when you ask them to do something else? For your children its basically free money, children should know in life sometimes you have to do things with no reward. I believe that children shouldn’t be getting a , “special treat” for something as simple as reading a book.
With the advancements of new technology and new things coming out so often to captivate our minds, reading is more and more of an afterthought. Modern-day people see technology as the gateway to the internet where they can find anything they think of and want to look up. The internet also contains access to games and videos people like to play and watch for entertainment when bored and have nothing better to do. I still enjoy reading books but technology merged with my personality as I aged up and I needed to use computers more for school work. I could still get back into a reading mode if I wanted to, but first, I would need to set myself a set of guidelines to follow to get back into reading over using a computer. I think we should be quite concerned because with new technology comes cons such as brain rot Gen Z and Gen A kids watch nowadays instead of leveling up their vocabulary and wit from reading. Watching brainrot is fun for now but that decision will come back to bite in the future.
Parents shouldn’t pay their children to read because the value of reading is more meaningful than just earning money. Reading opens up new ideas, sparks curiosity, and helps kids develop a deeper understanding of the world. When we attach a reward to it, we risk turning what should be an enjoyable and enriching activity into just another task to complete.
Instead of paying for pages read, parents can focus on creating a love of books by encouraging children to explore topics they’re interested in. Whether it’s a thrilling adventure, a fascinating science book, or a story about a favorite character, letting kids choose what they read can naturally motivate them. Sharing books as a family and discussing stories together can also make reading more enjoyable and meaningful.
Rather than just offering money, parents can support their child’s curiosity and help them see reading as a fun and valuable part of life. This helps build a lifelong love of learning that goes beyond any temporary reward.
Kids, especially at a young age, learn by doing things repeatedly. So if you pay your kid for reading by themselves, they expect that payment again, and again, and again. It's better to help them learn by rewarding them with small thing, like screen time, or candy. This will not effect your kid when they grow up, since the effect these reward has on your child get smaller and smaller every year. For example, you child might like to have a diet coke if he finishes a book. This prize will not result in them expecting it every time, since they will get their own money someday and will learn not to spend their money on treats. But bribing your child with 100$ means that the child will be extremely happy for a day or two, and then expect a reward every time, since the felling of spend large amounts of money never wears off.
