Bribes or Rewards....

A few months back (November to be exact) there was an article in the Washington Post about people receiving bonuses at work for losing weight. The article went on about a lot of different incentives people are given for healthy behaviors--one doctors office even paid their patients money to lose money--and then went on to talk about this maybe being a bit unethical. Some people say that it is wrong to pay people to exercise or eat right (or whatever), and that it is simply "bribery."

In my opinion, we all need a little incentive to do the right thing sometimes--especially when we're trying to break a bad habit. If we're paying people to do unhealthy things that is a different story. We all get paid to work at our jobs (ok, so us stay at home moms don't get a physical paycheck we can spend)...and no one ever complains that it is unethical to pay people to get them to work. Who would go to work if we didn't get paid? Even if you totally love your job? Hey...I wouldn't even mind getting paid to exercise and eat right...that's always my intention, sometimes I just need a little kick in the pants, and a positive kick in the pants wouldn't be so bad.

So...to get to kids. I'm in the opinion that positive rewards, incentives, or even bribes if you want to call it that are a good thing--used in thoughtful, moderate ways that is. You may want to think about what the desired behavior is and offer an incentive that mathes up with that (for example, you wouldn't want to offer candy to get a kid to brush his teeth and put on pjs, but maybe an extra bedtime story would be appropriate).