How To Punish Your Child – Charge Them!
Over the course of reading several financial investing and personal finance books, I ran across the concept that human are extremely loss averse when it comes to money.
I think it was in A Random Walk Down Wall Street where the author described that loss aversion is real – he mentioned that the pain of losing money is actually twice as severe psychologically than it should be mathematically. They determined this through a number of different studies and surveys. You can read more about loss aversion here if you’re interested.
How to Punish Your Child – The Background
My wife and I had always had trouble getting our children to close the garage door and back door in the summer and winter months. I think this is probably one of the age-old gripes that parents have with their children. As you know, we’re not paying to heat and cool the outdoors!!
For whatever reason, we just couldn’t get our children to understand this concept. Until recently, that is…
How to Punish Your Child – Charge Them!
Well, one day after wondering why I was getting a blast of hot air hitting me while walking through the house, I noticed that the garage door was left wide open – again! Incorporating what I had just learned about loss aversion and the psychological effect of losing money, I got an idea. “Son,” I said. “The next time you leave the garage door open, I’m going to charge you one dollar. Do you understand?”
Well… he said he understood 🙂 Sure enough, a day or two later the garage door was left open again! “Son, go get your wallet!” I yelled out. “That will be one dollar please.” You would have thought that I was cutting off his leg or arm! After he calmed down and I actually collected the money, I think it actually sunk in with him that he couldn’t leave the garage door open any more 🙂
How to Punish Your Child – The Result
This method of charging your child as a punishment has worked so well for us it correcting their behavior that we’ve leveraged it to many different things. Here are just a few examples:
- Leaving the house doors open
- Throwing pillows on the floor
- Jumping on the bed
- Spilling their drinks at breakfast/lunch/dinner
- Fighting over toys
How to Punish Your Child – Final Thoughts
We know that charging our children as a method of punishment is a very effective method of changing their behavior. Are we somehow messing up our child’s relationship with money in the long term? I’d hate do be creating some type of long term issue with them and money. This method seems so effective, I don’t know why everyone doesn’t do this! What do you think? What are the downsides to punishing your children by charging them that I’m not seeing??
I haven’t ever punished my son for charging him….but we dock his allowance when he doesn’t perform his responsibilities or gives us a hard time about doing it. It’s quite a motivator… 🙂
Brock @cleverdude recently posted…Is a Phone/Tablet Protection Plan Worth The Cost?
Brock,
Yes, I share your findings 🙂 We found that it was even more effective to take money away that he actually had vs. grant him less at the end of the week for the chores. At the end of the day, he still has the same amount. But, the psychological impact of losing the money that was “his” seemed to work better…
How about buying a device that will close the door behind them?
Probably much cheaper than the heated bills and you can have the kids pay for it with their allowance so they learn to be responsible next time.
Pauline recently posted…Living, working and traveling 24/7 as a couple
Pauline,
That’s a great idea. We could have them put the punishment money into the “door closing” jar 🙂
I love this idea. I will use this when my son gets old enough to even make any money, like allowance. Thanks for the awesome idea!
Grayson @ Debt Roundup recently posted…Top 20 Money Quotes to Inspire and Motivate
Grayson,
No problem – good luck with it 🙂 It really does work wonders for both of our kids.
Kids definitely pick up on money being valuable really quickly. I like how you use it to transfer the importance of other things being valuable too. I hope it teaches them the responsibility that you are looking for. I know I would always check the doors if I was charged a dollar!
Zee recently posted…Keeping up with the Bloggers. Can I really save as much as the bloggers out there?
Zee,
You are right in that kids understand pretty quickly what money can be used for and how it’s important for certain things. It seems to be working so far. Thanks for stopping by!