Parents pay their children to behave

Parents are resorting to paying their children to behave, using cash payments as ‘behaviour bribery’.

A third of UK parents admitted to using a cash to bribe children under the age of ten years to behave.

The study, conducted by website BabyChild.org.uk, found that Cleaning the bedroom, washing dishes and eating vegetables were other areas where parents used cash as an incentive.

A 61 per cent paid their child £1-£2 each time, whilst 21 per cent paid a whopping £5 for each incident.

Of those parents who used the cash incentives, 53 per cent thought it was the right method to use.

Co-founder of Babychild.org.uk, Jill Tovey said: “Although behavioural rewards are often the most effective way of encouraging behaviour in certain situations, parents should try to encourage children to adhere to their wishes at a young age, without the help of bribery. More often than not bribery should be a last resort, and although it often seems like the easy route, giving cash so frequently may leave a bigger dent in your wallet than you realise! Children can also get wise to it and will act up in the hope that, if they start then behaving, they will get some money.”