Creative Parenting – Rewards
Everyone enjoys a treat from the treat bag! It’s fun to receive awards for doing a good job. Usually it doesn’t really matter what the reward is along as it brings a smile.
Throughout my life I have set goals for myself. With these goals I always set up a reward system. For instance, I recently changed my eating habits and started making better meal choices.
I had set a goal in mind of what I wanted my target weight to be. Once I reached that goal, I visited a newly opened doughnut shop and treated myself to a doughnut.
Knowing there is a reward is an incentive to me.
I took this principle and applied it in raising my children. My husband and I didn’t want our parenting to be only focused on disciplining poor behavior but we wanted to reward right behavior as well.
When our children were younger I went to the Dollar store and purchased toys and trinkets my children would like. I then placed these items in a gift bag and told the kids that this was the goodie bag.
When we went grocery shopping, out to eat, to the doctor’s office, or anywhere I expected good behavior, they were told they could pick something out of the goodie bag if they behaved.
This worked wonders!
Over time I didn’t always reward them with something from the goodie bag because I didn’t want them behaving appropriately just to get a treat. They needed to learn that behaving correctly was the best thing to do.
God is the perfect parent. He loves us enough to disciple us and he loves us enough to reward us. He is our example of love we can emulate to our children.
As our children have grown, Brian and I still use this method of reward.
Now that they are teenagers they have been doing chores around the house to save money for a new game system.
We told them if they were good at saving their money come Spring break then we would help them purchase what they wanted. We are teaching them the value of saving.
I hope you are encouraged to be creative with your children. Seek the Lord for wisdom, he will answer you.
Having a balance between disciple and reward sets a positive tone in my household. If you can find that balance, I am sure you will find blessing as well.
So I would like to ask you this, “Have you found creative ways to reward your children for good behavior?”
