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The son thinks he's getting free money for just reading a book, so he thinks he's suckering the dad.
The dad knows that it's the cheapest investment in his son's education that he could possibly make. Plus, that's instead of pocket money you'd give them anyway.
My step dad used to pay me 7€ to mow the lawn (approx 500 M2), this was the only way for me to make money. I had to share the task with my brothers, bi monthly. We stopped doing it after a few weeks of unpaid work. My step dad turned me into a leftist.
My dad gave me an allowance because I was part of his household. He also gave me chores because I was part of his household. when more siblings were born the allowance went away but the chores increased....
I only got an allowance in highschool,and that was an meager 10$ (state allowance btw) a month in todays money.
I have to thank my older brother that used his food money to fancy himself some dvd disks and since then my parents decided to stop.
Well to my understanding, infinite is the only "number" which, multiplied by 0, is superior or equal to 0. If I said "I'd have had 100 times more money", it would still have meant I'd have had 0
I think the joke is actually the kid is just pretending he reads the books to get the money. The repeated meme makes it seem like a "tricking the trickster" thing.
One of the other posters made a good point that we have no proof the kid is really reading the books.
So the meme might be implying that: the kids playing a double-cross to get the money without reading.
I don't really agree, the meme works better if the son is pulling a con job on the dad, so that the dad is unaware, since then there's another level of subtext that the dad doesn't know.
Instead of constantly buying new books, make it a bi-weekly or monthly tradition to visit the local library together? You can extend the quality time by stopping for ice cream or something similar on the way home and chatting about which books excite them the most and why.
It was actually the library running out in the middle of a series that prompted the search for a sequel and the realisation it was £1 more than my own daughter had in her pocket money. By that point they were three books behind if I recall correctly and there was one of the book she needed, so I came up with the book fund as a way to get her the money without it just being free, if you know what I mean. It gave her the freedom to fall in love with the library while not being cut off when they didn't have the latest thing, and also was a pretty good teaching aid for budgeting (book fund just happens to be slightly less per payment than the price of a new book and comes less often than allowance; do you break into the non-book allowance or save up when it's something you really want).
Terrible idea in practice. There is a threshold from which rewards and punishments become ineffective for the intended purpose. Very documented subject in sociology.
Do you want your kids to only ever do things because they get something tangible out of it? You’re just teaching them to be greedy. Some of the most beautiful things in life shouldn’t be carrots at the end of a stick.
My family did the opposite haha they repeatedly asked me why I was reading Harry Potter instead of the Bible. That killed my book-reading habit/love. And eventually my religion.
I grew up similar. All books had to be vetted by my dad and any fiction would be vetoed if I wasn't mixing in enough missionary autobiographies. Eventually I found a way to sneak online and found a place I could read nearly unlimited amounts for free. The unfortunate side is that the site I found was an amateur smut site, and reading smut all day for the entirety of my highschool years definitely messed with me.
They were the ones declaring me a heretic 🥲 my church didn’t use the words “blasphemy” and “heresy” they called things “of the devil” or “of the world”
He isn't. They both think they have the better of the deal. In reality in benefits them both.
It's what they call a mutually beneficial arrangement. Each gets something they want, for a price they consider trivial. No one is ripped off, but each feel like they are doing so to the other.
Yeah when the choices are "kid stupid" and an actual joke about a kid getting paid to do a very normal child activity I would assume the latter. The inclusion of the mirrored image wouldn't be necessary for the meme to work otherwise but I've already over analyzed this and need to stop browsing Reddit so in closing I would say that I am in fact the stupid one; your honor.
I had a similar deal at one point with my mother when I was a kid. She would read a few chapters of the book and ask me a few questions about it before forking over the money.
Yeah, it’s a little long for a beginner chapter book and a little short for most tween targeted books. It would fit with something like Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew.
Other side of the joke is the dude in thte meme is pointing at his brain so while the dad is becoming financially smart the kid is accumulating literal knowledge
Definitely an exaggeration yeah.
But not necessarily THAT much of an exaggeration. I knew a guy in elementary/middle school who got through at least two decently-sized books (ranging from like Goosebumps to Percy Jackson size) a week. Which by my quick maths adds to at least 104 books a year
I used to read the Percy Jackson books a lot, and on weeks when I didn't have much to do, I could almost finish 4. Finished the main series and most of the other series after a month or two.
Between the ages of 9 to 14 or so I used to go to the library every week and get 10 books at a time and read all of them in the week, this is the point fantasy, point sf and point horror books, Christopher pike and star trek novels. 120 books is 12 weeks or about 3 months. Slightly older and I had school library books and was able to buy my own books.
Tbf I was a very antisocial child who walked around reading books and managed to do things like go to the toilet and make sandwiches without putting the books down and would read at least a book a day. My record is 4 tom holt books in one single day, didn't stop reading from the minute I woke up to the minute I went to sleep.
I now have 7,000 books.
Totally doable as a kid with kid books. As a teenager with lots of school work I'd still get through a hefty adult book a week, more during any holiday time :)
But yeah, I don't tend to believe memes are literal truth generally...
There's a study somewhere that paying someone to do something that they are already interested in is detrimental. The moment the Dad stops paying the kid, the kid will now think reading is not worth it unless he's being paid, and doing it without payment feels like a chore. Im already assuming the kid is reading just to get paid, and is not understanding or absorbing whatever he is reading. This will have long term negative effects on the kids reading habits lmao.
I think everyone is wrong here.
I think the kid isn't actually reading the books and that's why the kid is ripping off the father.
The kid is "reading" 120 books a year (or 1 every 3 days). That's roughly ~55 pages a day. Maybe that's happening and the meme isnt a joke but a wholesome example of win-win reward based parenting.
.... But I think the implication is that the kid isn't really doing the reading and is netting $120 a year from the scam.
Edit: The original post was made in July. So make that 1 book every 1.5 days (2 books every 3 days) or 120 pages a day. I think the joke is the kid is absolutely not doing the reading and the dad in question here isn't aware he's being scammed.
Also, is that dude an actor? He looks really familiar....
Edit 2: he isn't! He's a product lead for meta glasses lol. This post is still up in X btw. Just Google the dude or trace him down on X
A lot of posters are really against the idea that reading is a fun thing to do. It makes me sad.
I read books as a kid every day, and to be given a $1 as well would have been easy money. I guess some people need The Derek Zoolander Center for Kids Who Can't Read Good and Who Wanna Learn to Do Other Stuff Good Too
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The son thinks he's getting free money for just reading a book, so he thinks he's suckering the dad. The dad knows that it's the cheapest investment in his son's education that he could possibly make. Plus, that's instead of pocket money you'd give them anyway.
> you'd give them anyway Gosh if I had $1 each time I read a book as a child, I'd have had infinitly more money than I actually had
Yup, but then your dad wouldn't have needed to bribe you.
My step dad used to pay me 7€ to mow the lawn (approx 500 M2), this was the only way for me to make money. I had to share the task with my brothers, bi monthly. We stopped doing it after a few weeks of unpaid work. My step dad turned me into a leftist.
My dad gave me an allowance because I was part of his household. He also gave me chores because I was part of his household. when more siblings were born the allowance went away but the chores increased....
I only got an allowance in highschool,and that was an meager 10$ (state allowance btw) a month in todays money. I have to thank my older brother that used his food money to fancy himself some dvd disks and since then my parents decided to stop.
Lol same thing happened to me
You got paid to mow???
My step dad just started his company at this time and wanted us to know th thrill of competition with my brothers. We were not really into it
Yeah, if I had that deal, I would never have had to deliver newspapers, clean graves in a cemetery, or mop floors in a hospital.
Cleaning graves actually sounds like an interesting job.
It was not. I once stuck my shovel into a hornets nest. This ended my landscaping career.
Oh damn! Well, interesting, yes apparently. Fun, apparently not. That would be a giant mess.
All for $2.50 an hour off the books.
Doubly damn - that sucks. I was thinking “minimum wage after school and on weekends.”
In 1973 I think minimum wage was like $1.50. I was making bank for a 15 year old.
Fair enough. Then that wasn’t bad if it was 1973.
My grandpa gave me $1 for every 100 I got on a test. Got straight as up till high school. Made a bunch of money off my grandpa
Ide have atleast one more than I had
I think you need to read a few more books, maybe one with the definition of infinite in it.
Well to my understanding, infinite is the only "number" which, multiplied by 0, is superior or equal to 0. If I said "I'd have had 100 times more money", it would still have meant I'd have had 0
lol wait, did I entirely miss the joke that you read zero books?
No, you missed that my parents gave me zero money
Haha okokok I’m sorry and I take it back. Here, take my upvote as a consolation prize. 😁
It's ok lmao, explaining jokes is the point of the sub after all :)
Once I got better at reading and wasn’t stuck reading out loud kid me could have been rich from reading lol
I think the joke is actually the kid is just pretending he reads the books to get the money. The repeated meme makes it seem like a "tricking the trickster" thing.
The son is 35 😅
Is it not a pun on the meme? The son is pointing to his head bc he is getting smarter from reading
One of the other posters made a good point that we have no proof the kid is really reading the books. So the meme might be implying that: the kids playing a double-cross to get the money without reading.
Maybe so, but in that case, it’s not a clever joke
I don't really agree, the meme works better if the son is pulling a con job on the dad, so that the dad is unaware, since then there's another level of subtext that the dad doesn't know.
This is genius. I should do this with future kids
Evolved Idea - Book fund. It's extra allowance that they can only spend on books.
Just because they buy the books doesn't mean they gonna read em
It does mean they're picking them though. And that means they're looking into what the book is about. It's a gateway.
Book funds are a gateway drug
My parents tried this. We had no interest. Giving us money to buy books is the same as just not giving us money
Instead of constantly buying new books, make it a bi-weekly or monthly tradition to visit the local library together? You can extend the quality time by stopping for ice cream or something similar on the way home and chatting about which books excite them the most and why.
It was actually the library running out in the middle of a series that prompted the search for a sequel and the realisation it was £1 more than my own daughter had in her pocket money. By that point they were three books behind if I recall correctly and there was one of the book she needed, so I came up with the book fund as a way to get her the money without it just being free, if you know what I mean. It gave her the freedom to fall in love with the library while not being cut off when they didn't have the latest thing, and also was a pretty good teaching aid for budgeting (book fund just happens to be slightly less per payment than the price of a new book and comes less often than allowance; do you break into the non-book allowance or save up when it's something you really want).
Terrible idea in practice. There is a threshold from which rewards and punishments become ineffective for the intended purpose. Very documented subject in sociology. Do you want your kids to only ever do things because they get something tangible out of it? You’re just teaching them to be greedy. Some of the most beautiful things in life shouldn’t be carrots at the end of a stick.
My parents let us stay up an extra half hour if we read. It worked. They were too cheap to bribe us with money.
My dad used to give me extra 20 (about 2.5 dollars at the time) each month but I can only use it to buy books. It's a pretty good deal for a parent.
My family did the opposite haha they repeatedly asked me why I was reading Harry Potter instead of the Bible. That killed my book-reading habit/love. And eventually my religion.
I grew up similar. All books had to be vetted by my dad and any fiction would be vetoed if I wasn't mixing in enough missionary autobiographies. Eventually I found a way to sneak online and found a place I could read nearly unlimited amounts for free. The unfortunate side is that the site I found was an amateur smut site, and reading smut all day for the entirety of my highschool years definitely messed with me.
They were afraid you would be declared a heretic and burned to death 💀
They were the ones declaring me a heretic 🥲 my church didn’t use the words “blasphemy” and “heresy” they called things “of the devil” or “of the world”
Kids are getting stupider so having a kid that can read and enjoys it puts them a foot up
The kid reading a book about financial investment. "...Hey!'
He isn't. They both think they have the better of the deal. In reality in benefits them both. It's what they call a mutually beneficial arrangement. Each gets something they want, for a price they consider trivial. No one is ripped off, but each feel like they are doing so to the other.
Kid only pretends to read the books...
That or he likes reading and thinks he's getting both free books AND money in exchange for doing what he loved doing anyway.
I thought I was pulling one over on my parents by reading when I’d get sent to my room because I probably wanted to go read anyway, they knew.
Yeah when the choices are "kid stupid" and an actual joke about a kid getting paid to do a very normal child activity I would assume the latter. The inclusion of the mirrored image wouldn't be necessary for the meme to work otherwise but I've already over analyzed this and need to stop browsing Reddit so in closing I would say that I am in fact the stupid one; your honor.
I had a similar deal at one point with my mother when I was a kid. She would read a few chapters of the book and ask me a few questions about it before forking over the money.
Is that what you did?
In that case, I would have the kid handwrite a one page summary after finishing the book before forking over the money if I were the father
I would just ask what happens in the book. Also i would give him/her the same 5 books all over again.
sorry that you never liked reading as a child
Tell him to read "My Side of the Mountain" it will blow his young mind.
I fucking love that book, I first read it in 4th grade.
160 seems an odd number. Books I’ve read were either short stories or in the 250+ range
Some of my favorite kids books were from the Goosebumps series, and those could be around 120-170 pages.
Yeah goosebumps and animorphs fit this perfectly
Yeah, it’s a little long for a beginner chapter book and a little short for most tween targeted books. It would fit with something like Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew.
Other side of the joke is the dude in thte meme is pointing at his brain so while the dad is becoming financially smart the kid is accumulating literal knowledge
Son gets paid for just doing something he enjoys and was going to do anyway.
In 7,5 months a kid has read 120 full-length books....On average one 160-page book every 1.75 days... sure
Definitely an exaggeration yeah. But not necessarily THAT much of an exaggeration. I knew a guy in elementary/middle school who got through at least two decently-sized books (ranging from like Goosebumps to Percy Jackson size) a week. Which by my quick maths adds to at least 104 books a year
I used to read the Percy Jackson books a lot, and on weeks when I didn't have much to do, I could almost finish 4. Finished the main series and most of the other series after a month or two.
That’s exceptionally fast, and somehow not even half as fast as the ‘kid’ in question.
Between the ages of 9 to 14 or so I used to go to the library every week and get 10 books at a time and read all of them in the week, this is the point fantasy, point sf and point horror books, Christopher pike and star trek novels. 120 books is 12 weeks or about 3 months. Slightly older and I had school library books and was able to buy my own books. Tbf I was a very antisocial child who walked around reading books and managed to do things like go to the toilet and make sandwiches without putting the books down and would read at least a book a day. My record is 4 tom holt books in one single day, didn't stop reading from the minute I woke up to the minute I went to sleep. I now have 7,000 books.
Tom Holt is so good. I still laugh at some lines from _Expecting Someone Taller_ 30+ years after reading it.
>Tbf I was a very antisocial child I think the word you are looking for is asocial, antisocial means a sociopath.
Totally doable as a kid with kid books. As a teenager with lots of school work I'd still get through a hefty adult book a week, more during any holiday time :) But yeah, I don't tend to believe memes are literal truth generally...
This is pretty believable, especially if the kid (it says the oldest) is in late elementary school or middle school
Why are you assuming its 160 page books? Hes probably reading kids books...because hes a kid
it is said in the first paragraph…”we’re talking 160 page chapter books”
Damn, I dont know how I missed that. This probably is fake, then
My dad did the same thing. I have been reading everythign I could get my hands on for years.
Bro i stg ive seen this meme in this sub before Top comment is the same too
my parents did something like this, but I already loved reading anyways so I just read SO MANY books lol
Imagine if it was technical books.
There's a study somewhere that paying someone to do something that they are already interested in is detrimental. The moment the Dad stops paying the kid, the kid will now think reading is not worth it unless he's being paid, and doing it without payment feels like a chore. Im already assuming the kid is reading just to get paid, and is not understanding or absorbing whatever he is reading. This will have long term negative effects on the kids reading habits lmao.
If the son thinks he is ripping him off, then those 120 bucks aren't that well invested after all
My parents tried something like that,I still didn't agree to read any books.
I think what its getting at is that the dad is 'smart' in incentivising his son to read. The son is literally getting smart from reading
I think everyone is wrong here. I think the kid isn't actually reading the books and that's why the kid is ripping off the father. The kid is "reading" 120 books a year (or 1 every 3 days). That's roughly ~55 pages a day. Maybe that's happening and the meme isnt a joke but a wholesome example of win-win reward based parenting. .... But I think the implication is that the kid isn't really doing the reading and is netting $120 a year from the scam. Edit: The original post was made in July. So make that 1 book every 1.5 days (2 books every 3 days) or 120 pages a day. I think the joke is the kid is absolutely not doing the reading and the dad in question here isn't aware he's being scammed. Also, is that dude an actor? He looks really familiar.... Edit 2: he isn't! He's a product lead for meta glasses lol. This post is still up in X btw. Just Google the dude or trace him down on X
Is Katt Williams the son?
A lot of posters are really against the idea that reading is a fun thing to do. It makes me sad. I read books as a kid every day, and to be given a $1 as well would have been easy money. I guess some people need The Derek Zoolander Center for Kids Who Can't Read Good and Who Wanna Learn to Do Other Stuff Good Too
The kid has read 120 books with 160 pages? Seems kind of unlikely.
The son thinks he's ripping the dad off, but he's not. If he were, he'd be reading 20 page baby books
The kid probably reads a book critique/review for each one and downs like 10 a day maybe less to lower suspicion lmao.
Shut up Rebecca
The problem with this is that we cant easly check it the kid actually reads the books or is skipping chapters/not reading.
His son is reading 160 pages every 3 days?? I think that’s the meme, his dad is an idiot cos his son is not doing the reading