My column is up over at Athens Patch!
The topic today is
all about bribing our kids,
(I prefer to call it positive reinforcement)
I'd love to hear your thoughts
and experiences.
Please come join the conversation.
Pretty please with sugar on top?
Here is a jar of candy to entice you.
The topic today is
all about bribing our kids,
(I prefer to call it positive reinforcement)
I'd love to hear your thoughts
and experiences.
Please come join the conversation.
Pretty please with sugar on top?
Here is a jar of candy to entice you.
Click here to read the article
and comment away!
and comment away!
4 comments:
You're the bomb, Mama. And you handled all those comments like a pro!
I am on my way to read your article--they have all been great! Can't wait to see this one! :)
Hi Leigh :-)
We had four sons in six years time. My husband always worked two jobs. Seeing how his 'part time job' was for a caterer, it often equaled up to two full time jobs. Therefore, if I went any-where, I had four sons with me.
Four young sons and grocery shopping could have been QUITE the weekly experience. It was, until I started bribing my children. I did the push-you-pull-you thing with carts - one cart in front of me containing two sons, and one behind me holding the other two. Man the muscles I had built up. ;-p
The plan I put into action was this - the first stop we made once everybody was in their carts, was the donut counter. They each got to pick out which kind they wanted that week. They then had to 'earn' the right to getting a donut the following week. The deal was, they could not beg for anything while I was shopping. NOTHING! Oh sure, here and there they would point out something they wanted, or make a pitch about how good some product would be, they were after all young boys. But they could NOT keep begging if I said no. Period. IF they did, then the next time we went grocery shopping, the one whom had begged the week before did not get a donut that week. Trust me, it did not take them more than once each to catch on that mom was serious!!!
True, depending on the donut they chose, they sometimes ended up with chocolate or strawberry filling on them before we were ready to leave the store. But I was okay with that. I figured that people could tell the difference between my donut smeared children, and children whom were out and out unkempt children in a store.
Our sons are now all in their 20's. To this day, if they accompany me to the store, they think they get to pick out a donut. And when I send them to the store with my list and debit card, you can rest assured that there will be a donut listed on the receipt. ;-) I think it's cute.
Your article certainly caused a nice stir! Liked all of the pros and cons noted by readers! Keep up those thought-provoking articles!
Post a Comment