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Bern you talk a lot of sense, I am totally with you on this subject.
Personally I think a lot of the problems that exist with todays children are due to a lack of respect. This encompasses all levels of class, colour and creed. Simple things that you and I were brought up to accept as the norm, like saying please and thank you for instance, are no longer taught to children at the age when they should be learning about respect. It amazes me when in shops, the number of children who just say "one of them" instead of "Can I have one of those please", then just walk away without saying thank you. Respect costs nothing, yet very few children are taught it these days. When we were young we respected the police, our teachers, people older than ourselves, our parents etc. These days they don't even know what respect means. With the breakdown of common courtesies came the breakdown of the well behaved child. I'm not saying all children are like it - there are some very polite children around, but it does seem to be the ones who don't know respect that are the problem.
So getting back to the subject of this thread, I think all children should be praised when they do something well, even if they're normally trouble makers, but I don't agree with rewarding any child for being naughty. How the hell can they know what is right and wrong if we, the adults, send out such mixed messages. It doesn't matter if a child is of working parents, single parent or stay at home parent, if we give them that good start in life by teaching them right and wrong and setting good examples by our own actions we can at least say we tried.
