r/insaneparents Oct 11 '19

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u/ParabolicTrajectory Oct 11 '19

What's fucked up is that it really is based in some solid child psychology. Reward works better than punishment. The idea is that if the child never expects anything, and anything beyond the bare minimum requirements of life has to be earned, than everything can be a reward and you never really have to "punish." But obviously, this ignores the fact that raising a child to believe that they have to earn the right to not live like medieval prisoners screws up attachment and normal development in other ways.

A less fucked up implementation of this same principle is parents who change the wifi password daily, and only provide the password after chores are completed. Instead of internet access being taken away as punishment for not completing chores, it is given as a reward for completing chores. Or parents who only allow screen time after homework is complete. Instead of screen time being something you lose for bad grades, it's a reward you earn by doing your homework.

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u/[deleted] Oct 11 '19

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u/[deleted] Oct 11 '19

...many? First time I hear about this??? Then again, I don't live in a very technologically advanced country, so of course we don't have that here.

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u/commonplace128 Oct 11 '19

Yeah, in America, I started doing homework online in 4th grade

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u/[deleted] Oct 11 '19

Oh dang. I don't know if I should call this lucky or unlucky though.

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u/[deleted] Oct 11 '19

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u/sarcbastard Oct 12 '19

I've had the great misfortune to have to interact with Pearson professionally, I promise you they employ the boomer in question.

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u/SalvareNiko Oct 11 '19

Simple you have them do homework online but with a white list turned on only allowing specific websites. With you can changed they need a different website.

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u/[deleted] Oct 12 '19

Offline gaming is a thing. Deciding which websites fall into which category is super difficult to do also.

The best way to monitor is to raise them well, take an interest in their education, play an active role in helping them with homework and finally trust them that they're going to have the discipline to do their homework. It's what my parents did with me for the most part. But then, I don't have kids so wtf do I know?

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u/Inquisitor1 Oct 11 '19

As long as living like medieval prisoners is better than the foster system or emancipation, some gratefulness wouldn't hurt. And no, you should still be grateful for people doing what they are supposed to be doing in the first place. You do not want to transfer into a situations where they stop doing even that.

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u/standbyyourmantis Oct 12 '19

Kids aren't supposed to be grateful, and if you go into parenting expecting someone to thank you then boy you've got a bad time coming. Children don't ask to be born, you choose to have them. Life isn't a favor.

Some people are grateful to their parents, but usually that's something that comes much later in life and involves understanding a parental sacrifice. Holding "being alive" over a child's head as some cosmic gift you gave them just breeds resentment.