You don’t have to bribe your children to get them to behave, but sometimes it really does help to incentivize them with a system that works in order to get them to curb their undesirable behaviors. Afton had a really hard time transitioning from her crib to her toddler bed so we implemented a sticker system. You stay in the bed, you get a sticker. When you get 5 stickers you get a treat. Well, at first it was really hard for Afton to get any stickers, and then she would throw a fit when she didn’t get the sticker. But, we stuck to our guns and eventually it took. Now that Afty is 3 and a half, we have had to reimplement the sticker chart. We have been having a difficult time in the morning with the princess AM attitude and the ridiculous, “You have to wear clothes to school,” arguments. It got tiresome and frustrating so Katie suggested we reintroduce the sticker system. It completely changed Afton’s mindset and helped motivate her to be more helpful and less argumentative in the morning.
We have had to make subtle tweaks like setting the clothes out the night before, but Afton is now highly motivated to earn that sticker and get a special reward. The nice thing about the rewards for us, is the reward always involves quality family time together. We normally let Aft pick out a sweet treat of some sort (this may be different for your kiddo), but this has been something that has really worked well for us. Afton decided she wanted doughnuts for her treat this time instead of her typical ice cream choice. We decided to check out HOLE over in Westville. It is a pretty awesome little joint and it was just a fun experience getting to watch the workers pick up the hot doughnuts with drum sticks and place them in whatever different flavoring customers had ordered. It really had a nice atmosphere and some delicious chocolate milk. If you have any good tips and tricks for helping curb unwanted behaviors, please share them in the comments.
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