Should we pay our kids to read?

Should we be paying our children at all?

Every summer, our local library runs a reading challenge. A few summers ago, the librarian (who I absolutely love and is a wonderful human), asked whether my children might be interested in participating.

The deal is, you read a certain number of books a week and then you get a reward for it - I think it was sweets or candy in this case.

Basically, you are paid to read. Because isn’t a reward just a euphemism for payment? When an adult gets “rewarded” at work, it’s usually a pay rise or a bonus, right?

Perhaps, just perhaps, rewards are to payment like spanking is to hitting (minus the violence.) In other words, they are the same, but codified in order to make them sound more palatable to adults: when it’s an adult, we say compensation or payment, but when it’s a child, we call it a reward. Am I onto something?