June 3rd, 2008 Good parents should be rewarded Posted by Melitsa in Articles, play activities, Thought of the week

I read this news report with interest. No I don’t think we should be rewarded for doing our job but some days I would gladly take a reward.

Who would get these rewards?

Perhaps parents who spent time reading to their children, going to school parents evenings or helping out in their school, could get higher payments, she suggested.

She acknowledged it was a complex area and that there would always be some parents that would be hard to reach, but that did not mean it should not be tried.

Such a system sounds great but must be totally unworkable. How would you practically monitor who did or didn’t?Nevermind, what would constitute the ‘right’ amount of reading time?

Parenting is such a hard full on rush punctuated with bouts of tiredness and bewilderment. It’s no wonder we all have troubles from time to time. But being paid to do something through the benefits system would take away the pleasure of the fun things that parenting produces for me.

Punitive steps like fining parents for truanting children rarely worked, National Association of Head Teachers president Clarissa Williams argued.

I do agree that fining and pointing the finger at parents rarely helps but sharing good practice and giving support really does help parents. This is something much more worthwhile to do.

Instead of concentrating on opposites of rewarding good behaviour and punishing bad why not instead focus on injecting good practice through mentoring in parenting areas.e.g. through playgroups, play associations, Dr offices, schools. Showing, listening and helping parents is a much better approach than telling them they are good or bad parents.

What do you think? Have your say….

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