The Art Of Bribery

My wife Emma gave the idea for this one. She tells me all of the little things that the girls throughout the day. What they did to make her laugh, small accomplishments and of course the terrible two’s driven tantrums.

When I said that I was stuck for something to write as my poor brain is all clogged up with work type things and an unhealthy dose of the man flu. She said why don’t you talk about me bribing them to get them to do stuff? Excellent idea!

As Lilly and Amy are becoming more aware, we as adults can start having conversations that they can, for the most part, understand. Now that we have a dialog open, we can start making deals with them. Well when I say deals I mean bribes really because they learn if they do things that they don’t really want to do then they get something as a reward for doing it.

Amy and Lilly love playing outside in the garden with their new outdoor toys. This for us is a very large bargaining chip so when at tea time Emma is struggling with them not eating she says “eat your tea and then we will go outside and play”. Well what do you know, 2 empty bowls and two happy faces ready to go out. When she went for a walk, to get the girls to sit in the buggy, she said that they could have their Wellington boots on and result, no complaining just happy smiles all round and the girls repeating what colour they were for the whole walk.

So there it is, a form of control that doesn’t mean shouting or ending in tears. Is this just another parenting tip that we have just picked up on? The bribe, deal or kickback?

As I am typing this, I think back to when I was younger and I can think of countless occasions when deals have been struck so that I would get things done. I can also remember a point when I started to make the terms and conditions of the deal. I will clean my room if you give me some money for example. So I'm sure when my girls get older they will try and open negotiations to get more.

So my loyal readers (I know there is one out there), I have questions:

Do you use bribery to get your kids to do stuff?
What is the biggest thing you have promised in return for something to get done?
Have they come back with an even bigger counter offer?

Let me know your thoughts and experiences….