I recently heard about an American magazine writer who wrote an article about bribing her teenage daughter to read a book instead of always being focused on a small screen. What could possibly go wrong?!

I’m unsure if I’m allowed two-sentence enders, but it seemed warranted in this case. You can argue amongst yourselves as to which should go first!

I wondered if I had ever done that with my children. I thought not. Wrong! I had.

One of our children struggled with reading, as opposed to an initial aversion to reading a book. Cell phones had not been thought of at this time. We signed him up for remedial reading with a local business. He progressed wonderfully, as predicted by the teacher. They were ready to stop, as he probably was not going to increase his grade-level reading. He had caught up.

To our surprise, he still wanted to go. We knew that he received tokens for reading and could exchange them for prizes, or were they gifts, or were they bribes?

We wanted to encourage his reading, and he was very highly motivated. He remembered all his appointments. He let us know he was off to class as he hopped on his bike to get himself there all on his own. We gladly paid the tuition to support him.

He never became a bookworm, but he does enjoy audiobooks, which he subscribes to now as an adult.

The magazine writer offered a straight cash transaction. The reader’s sister quickly tried to get a cash bribe for eating her vegetable.

Mom took a transactional view and limited the bribe to reading. Her daughter quickly read the book in a few weeks, her nose to the grindstone. She wanted the next book in the series when she closed the book. Job done. Mom had twigged her daughter’s interest in the world of books. A tantalizing taste had been offered and accepted. The bribe had worked, encouraging her daughter to try the unfamiliar so she could better assess whether reading a book was for her.

Please give this bit of a think. Was the magazine writer, right? Why? Can you identify as a parent a situation when bribing was rejected? If you did bribe, what was the outcome? When do the ends justify the means?

I am curious about your thoughts. Please comment below with your reflection.

This blog was posted with permission from my son.

Photo by Katherine Jenswold on Unsplash

If you enjoyed The Blog, please share it with others. Thanks.

And my thanks to St. Albert’s 50+ Activity Centre for making this Blog possible.

Volunteer Blogger

glenn.walmsley@icloud.com