I just came across this New York Times opinion piece about bribing a child to read… and while my initial reaction was pretty strongly negative, I’m trying to back up and think it through.
The piece opens:
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.
I can relate… to an extent.
My two children (now adults) are polar opposites when it comes to reading. My daughter is an absolute, no-question-about-it, you’ll-pry-my-books-out-of-my-cold-dead-hands book worm. She’s never without a book… often, many books at the same time. Like me, at any given time she’ll have at least one physical or ebook in progress plus an audiobook… and sometimes even more. I’ve never had to push her to read. From the time she first realized she could get through a book on her own, she’s never looked back or slowed down.
On the other hand, my son has never — to the best of my knowledge — picked up a book just for fun. He’s read what he’s had to read for school. And every once in a while, if I’ve placed a book in his hands with just the right timing, he’s considered actually opening it up and reading it… but usually not. The last non-school-related books he read were the first three books of John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War series — but that was at least two years ago, and as far as I know, he hasn’t touched a single book since.
And let me point out once more — my kid is an adult. I can’t exactly threaten a 22-year-old with losing screen privileges or putting parental controls on his devices. He’s taking college courses and does the reading necessary for his classes, but that’s it. (He does still live in my house, which is probably why the lack of reading is so apparent to me.)
Reading for fun? He laughs at me and rolls his eyes when I suggest it.
Back to the New York Times essay. The idea of paying a kid $100 to read a book kind of makes my skin crawl. First of all, there’s the obvious element of privilege and financial status — offering this kind of cash to a child is clearly only for those who can shell out $100 without blinking an eye. But my focus today is really more about the bribery concept itself:
Why do we need to monetize reading? Shouldn’t reading be its own reward? Obviously, for book lovers, the answers is a resounding yes.
But how do we get our reluctant readers to pick up a book, for no other reason than to enjoy it? I don’t want to bemoan technology and how it’s destroying the youth of today. I love a good meme or cat video as much as the next person, and my husband routinely comments on my phone never leaving my hands. And yet, it’s also true that someone who loves to read will find the time and the attention to read… and someone who doesn’t have that innate love of reading simply will not.
After reading the essay, I briefly engaged in a thought exercise about trying to bribe my son. I know that if he’d only step away from his screens and put down the video game controllers, there’d actually be time in his day to spend at least a little while reading a book. To him, this just isn’t something that pulls him, and he has no motivation to do so. But if I dangled a cash incentive in front of him? Well, maybe.
And yet, the idea of actually offering money to get him to read is a huge turn-off.
Where does an incentive cross the line into bribery? We’re all familiar with library reading challenges that offer stickers and prizes for summer reading achievements, and I know many schools have read-a-thons and other competitions that tie reading to some sort of tangible reward. So why does offering cash strike me as a step too far? And yet, for my adult child, it’s really the only thing I could see tempting him. (Stickers will no longer cut it, alas.)
No, I’m not going to do it. But I do have a sneaking suspicion that if I actually did offer him $100, he’d be more than happy to comply.
I’m curious about other people with reluctant readers or non-readers in their lives? Do you offer incentives? Would you offer or have you ever offered cash? What’s your reaction to the NYT article?
I’d love to hear other people’s reactions on this! Please chime in and share your thoughts.
A final note: Upon finishing this post, I found a link to a post of mine from ten years ago about this exact topic — offering cash to my son to get him to read! My incentive plan topped out at $10 at that time… and as far as I recall, had no effect whatsoever. My offer of money for each book he read was not enough to actually tempt him. I’d completely forgotten about this post and the idea itself — probably because it went nowhere. Now, if I’d offered $100 per book… who knows???
Bookshelf Fantasies 
Knowing my little brother does not read, if I bribe him with $100, he just look at me like I lost my mind.
He is taking a literary class in collage but, I do suspect that he think it going to be like high school where you don’t has to read the book and the teacher just recaps the chapter before a quiz.
The fact that he taking a literary class is a step…somewhere.
That is definitely a step — and who knows, maybe he’ll like the assigned reading? It’s so hard to be an avid reader and not be able to get family members to read.
I remember you doing that!
I’d forgotten about it!! It didn’t work, clearly. 🙂
I wish someone would give me $100 to read a book 😭 I’ve been trying to convince my brother and husband to pick up some books, but I can’t seem to talk them into it!
Ooh, I’d love if someone offered to pay me to read! Where would I even spend all my money??
I have it easy because my kids are in elementary school and they have mandatory reading logs, so I’m using that time to really get them to explore what they actually enjoy reading. Supposedly, they get a pizza coupon if they reach a certain goal every month, but that hasn’t happened in 2 years. I wouldn’t say either are reluctant readers, exactly, but my son definitely doesn’t enjoy it as much as my daughter, unless he has a Diary of a Wimpy Kid book in his hands.
I don’t believe in rewarding for reading because I couldn’t imagine being forced to do something like play video games because some games are supposedly good for learning coding (which I hear is going to be necessary to learn going forward??), but I sure wouldn’t mind getting $100 a book. I have to have read over 60 books by now, so I think I’d earn somewhere around $6000 so far this year.
My mom used to bribe my brother with so many cents per page, and that died after a year. As far as I know, he hasn’t read a single book since his early teens.
Sometimes, I think you’re either a reader or you’re not, although people can come to it at any point in their lives. My father became hooked on reading somewhere in his late 70s!! I don’t know if he just never relaxed enough to do it earlier, but I don’t remember him ever reading while I was growing up, but in his retired years, he tore through so many books.
Good point about not offering reward for playing video games!
I agree! Everyone enjoys different things and interests change over time. That’s amazing that your father found so many good books to read; I hope I can still be reading like that when I’m his age!
Like you I have a daughter who is an avid reader and a son who stopped reading pretty much completely once he finished university. I’ve never considered bribing him to read. What would be the point? Reading is supposed to be enjoyable so I can’t see the point in bribing adults. Maybe children where you’re still trying to encourage them
However, my son has actually rediscovered books on his own especially film and TV tie ins. He has read the original Dune trilogy and has not long completed the whole of Wheel of Time. So don’t give up hope, your son may come back to books without it costing you money 😀
I’m still hoping! And it’s good to hear that your son eventually came back to reading. My stepsons also ended up reading Dune despite not typically being interested in books, and loved it — although it hasn’t particularly led to more reading overall.
I remember buying a subscription to a tennis magazine to entice my tennis playing son to read more! I never tried cash.
That’s a great idea! Did it help? I think the right book (or magazine) can make all the difference.
It did! 🙌
My son hates reading and I’ve never understood how!!!! I would say I would bribe him but it would be empty because, he’d read it, bit he wouldn’t enjoy it!
Fair point, if he read for the money but didn’t enjoy it or want to read on his own afterward, then nothing would really be accomplished.
Fascinating topic! I’ve never thought about it, maybe because I’m not a parent, but trying to bribe someone to read… I don’t think will make them become a reader. I mean, it could, I won’t say no for certain, but if anything, I think it gives the non-reader a bad habit when it comes to reading… especially if you’re going to instill it to a child. This teaches kids that if they read a book they’re going to be given money in return, and if they don’t get the money then they’re not going to read, which defeats the whole purpose, as you’d be bribing them the rest of your life. I don’t know it seems like a very fine line. Also, 100$ seems wild to me!
Oh, the amount — $100 for one book!) — seems so over the top to me too! I do think it’s a fine line, and for younger kids anyway, I know plenty of parents offer cash incentives for good grades. I never did — I always felt that doing well in school should be its own reward, just like reading — but when you have kids who aren’t motivated that way, I can see getting desperate enough to try other incentives.
That’s fair, when you get desperate enough about it, I can see resorting to that. I agree with you, doing well in school or reading should be its own reward.
Interesting! I’ll have to check out the whole article sometime.
I agree $100 is way too much, but I can see something more reasonable like your $10 would work for some kids. For younger kids, I know some who didn’t “like reading” when they were learning to read because having to stop constantly to sound things out wasn’t fun. They did like reading once they got the basics and could do it more quickly! So can you bribe them through the early phonics stages? Probably for some kids.
And I know the problem for some older kids is that they don’t like anything they’ve read. And then I think about all the ADULTS who primarily read one or two genres. No judgement but . . . what incentive does a kid have to FIND the one or two types of books they really like. They think, “I’ve read all these books and I didn’t like any of them. Why try more?” Maybe $10 would work on some of them until they find something they do like.
So I imagine it varies kid by kid, and maybe some kids don’t care about the $10. Maybe they want something else. Maybe they literally do not care at all and just won’t be avid readers no matter who you offer them, I guess it’s worth a try at least, for some parents!
Ok, I read the article, and I think I want a little follow up! Her kid read the initial book and then the sequel. Promising, but did she only read those two books? Is she willing to try more by the same author? A different author but similar genre! I need to know! Because the writer said it “worked,” and I guess it did in the sense the child read one book free in addition to the $100, but I really want to know if it opened the gateway to the child reading, or if it was a one-off thing. (Which is really why I wouldn’t start at $100. If you go with $10-20 per book, you can fit more books into your $100 budget.)
Excellent follow-up questions! I wondered as well — what does it “working” mean? Has she now become a reader? Has she branched out at all? We need more info!
Very good points, and I can see learning readers needing a prize to get through the harder stages of sounding out words (although at that age, a small item like a sticker or small toy is probably plenty). And I agree with your point about reluctant readers possibly not having found the right book for them, particularly when they’re only reading the books they’re forced to read for school. It can take a lot of trying to find the types of books we enjoy, and I can see that someone not already enjoying reading might not feel inspired to put in the effort to keep trying.
Reading is a hobby just like running or playing video games or knitting. If a kid wants to read, they’ll end up being a reader. I would never push my kids to take up a hobby they didn’t like, and I definitely wouldn’t pay them, lol. Although when they were in school, I did pay them for good grades!
Great points! I think a lot of parents end up with some variation of paying for good grades — and that feels different to me! Because for sure, school is required, not for fun (although hopefully there’s some fun there too), and some kids need more incentives to power through and really work at it. But I agree that paying for something that you’re hoping a kid will enjoy seem unproductive… maybe they’ll do it, but I can’t see that leading to a lifelong love of something they don’t want to do.
I don’t have kids, but I work with them everyday, and the problem I sometimes see with bribing them to do things is that they soon never want to do anything unless there’s a tangible reward for them at the end. One of the best thing my parents ever did for me growing was to read with me; I remember my mom picking up some old ugly brown book and saying, “Let’s read this together.” I was probably in 5th grade and totally didn’t want to because judging by the cover I knew I was never going to like that book. But reading it with my mom? I loved it. And I’ll always treasure that memory of time spent with my mom like that. I know being a reader as a parent doesn’t automatically make your kids readers, but at least they know you value books.
I agree with your point about offering rewards leading to kids not wanting to do anything without one! Sadly, even reading with a kid doesn’t mean they’ll be readers. I read every single night with my son throughout his childhood, and he loved being read to — and that just never translated into him wanting to read on his own. There’s no magical answer… but the idea of offering $100 to read a book doesn’t seem like the right direction !
I’m not for such bribery, but I also don’t have kids, so I don’t know if I’d have tried if I did and my kid doesn’t like to read. I’ve had family members use bribery tactics on my cousins who don’t like to read — promising ice cream or an outing if they read a book — but the bribery has never caused them to develop a love of reading. Although I love books and enjoy sharing my love of books, I think it’s OK if some folks and even kids aren’t bookworms, as long as they’re willing to read when needed (such as for homework). Many folks (well, those I know) always associate/equate a person who’s a bookworm as someone who’s very smart, and those who don’t read as people who aren’t intelligent. But there are different ways to gain knowledge and (these days) reading is just one of them.
Valid point, that reading isn’t the only way to gain knowledge. I think it pains those of us who consider ourselves booklovers when our kids or people we’re close to don’t share that love of reading. And you’re right, the bribe itself isn’t enough to make someone love reading on its own… although I think in some situations, someone who’s convinced that reading is boring or only for school maybe just hasn’t found the right book yet, so a little added incentive could help.