Bribing Up Baby
Janet Hamlin / AP
Last night before brushing my daughter’s teeth, I bribed her. Although she’s normally pretty good with letting me ‘help’ she’s also quite independent and wants to do it all herself, which has started an ‘argument’ (well, as much of an argument you can have with a not-quite 2 year old).
Not wanting to fight at all, I told her if she let me brush her teeth, I’d let her have a ‘big girl’ cup of water. It’s simply her newest fascination, drinking out of a ‘normal’ cup with no sippy extension. She hasn’t quite mastered it yet, so she needs to be watched over. It still was special enough to warrant her letting me brush her teeth fully and with no fight.
It is said that you should never bribe your child, that it can create a discipline issue further down the road.
Except, at times one would think that the people who say that never had any children. I do have a confession in that, I use bribery on my daughter. Not a lot, and not with toys or material types of things, but with little things that she’s showing interest in.
In some form or another most parents at one point or another use this kind of bribery on their kids. Although, experts to suggest against it, they do have some guidelines to use.
They’re mostly common sense guidelines, telling you not to give them a huge toy in exchange for eating their veggies and the like. They are good ones non the less.
Related posts:
- Hollywood Bump and Baby Watch – July 2008
- Baby Product Review: Baby Tad
- When is Baby Ready To Eat
- You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby: Browsing the Life Archive
- Alfie Patten 13 Year Old Dad
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