Bribing Your Kids

Author:
Shannon Breuner Nelson
Updated:
Dec 18, 2018
Original:
Feb 28, 2012

Do you bribe your kids?

I bribe mine. Not all day, every day, and not even once on some days. But in my opinion, when parenting, there are a few occasions where you just need to dangle a little bone. It can really take the sting out of the situation for both parties.

For example...my daughter had a nasty injury about a week ago that she now needs to take antibiotics for. She's three. And she HATES taking medicine. She's well beyond my son's age where you can sort of hold their head and squirt the Tylenol down their throats. And I can attest to the fact that she feels perfectly free to spit medicine back out after you've squirted it into her mouth. Short of drugging her food (which I have stooped to doing before), it's very challenging to get her to take something. And she needs it. How did I get this particular medicine down her? Well let's just say that she's really enjoying her new Memory game that I had stashed in the back of the gift closet.

We have expectations at our house and rules that we follow. And there is no bribing going on for those givens. But in this case I felt justified. It was a nasty accident. The medicine is for a nasty infection. I wouldn't want to take it either. I don't want to be covered in it when she spits it back out. Watching her cry and cover her mouth before taking it made me want to sweeten the deal a little. It was a win-win.

Do you occasionally pull out the bribery big guns? Or are you going to call Super Nanny on me? Click here to read The Right Way to Bribe Your Child by Parenting.com.