My little capitalist
We’ve been working with Junior a bit on some things since she should start school next year. Some of those things include getting her to learn her address, write her name, etc. Like her dad, Junior has an attention span measured in seconds. So, getting her to sit down and focus is a trying task. So, for several nights, the Mrs. would say to Junior Let’s work on writing your name. Junior would refuse. Adamantly. She’d start crying and whining about it. After about a week of repeatedly asking, the Mrs. looks at Junior and, once again, says Let’s work on writing your name. And Junior says I don’t want to. Like she always does. The Mrs. says I’ll give you a dollar. And Junior says OK and proceeds to quickly write her name.
She knows the value of a dollar and how to write her name. I was so proud.
July 11th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Starting at a dollar a bribe at age four is going to get expensive by the time she’s in high school. I suggest creative financing. Offer her SayUncle.com stock options in lieu of money or possibly a rent to own agreement on her Barbie Dream House.
July 11th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
Yeah, once you set the precedent, they’ll want paid to do anything. When she’s a bit older, you might try, “We’ll let you continue to sleep and eat here if you mow the lawn and stain the deck. Alternatively, you can cover your share of the bills, which amounts to $1,150.00 per month, each.” etc. I find I must use that one several times annually to keep the point fresh in their minds.
“Dad, can I have XXX dollars for mowing the lawn?”
“How about I pay the electricity bill this month and we’ll call it even?”
“Never mind.”
“If you want to paid to do the sorts of things that we have to do here anyway, go to the neighbors and ask if they’ll pay you to mow their lawn.”
He did. They do.
Rewards can take several forms, however. They do like putting their names on things they have created. Paintings and such for the young ones, and if the painting’s pretty…
July 13th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
I’m surprised at you, Unc. You’re a gunny, and you’re going to be raising your kids in The Way, right?
The proper bribe is ammo.
I don’t remember where I saw it, but somebody was doing chore-enforcement by awarding their kid a certain amount of .22LR weekly, and taking away rounds for misbehavior. Whatever was left by the weekend, the kid got to shoot. It appeared to be working well.