In my world of parenting, bribery is a means to an end. It’s not pretty, but I won’t pretend it’s not effective. In this season of Santa it is especially fabulous! In fact just today I told Bree to stop crying when nothing is wrong because “Santa does not like fakers”! Real genius going on around here!
A few blogs ago, I mentioned that Bree is starting to sleep at night in “big girl panties”. This has been a very hard transition for us and we took a chance by offering a very big reward for her completion of this goal: the “Doggie Doctor” Barbie Vet Station that Bree had fallen in love with when she saw the commercial on tv. She talked about it incessantly for about 2 weeks before we came up with our plan.
She had to sleep in “big girl panties” for 10 nights before she got her reward. She only had one accident in that time-span so we know that she is ready for this new life without diapers and believe us when we say we are as well. Three in diapers (even if only at night for one) is completely ridiculous.
She filled up her chart marking her progress last Friday and her reward of the “Doggie Doctor” Barbie Vet Station was ready for her to open. She was so excited.
Chart completion (she made said chart all by herself):
Learning to share HER reward with her brother (this is still a work in progress)
And finally Daddy applying all the finishing touches (aka stickers) to the Vet Station
Many dogs (she is pretty specific that she can only see dog patients) will be cured in her Vet Station and a lot less diapers will be discarded at our house due to bribery. I’d say it is a win-win for all involved.
Stay tuned for more stellar parenting examples from us!
