No, I just muddle along really and occasionally still use threats and bribes, but I try to use more gentle and long term methods.
The problem with your example is that bribes and rewards are just the flip side of punishments, and children will still be learning that manipulating someone (in this case, by offering a prize, rather than a punishment) to get them to do what you want, is the right way to behave.
I remember one poster who had been using rewards a lot, saying that her dd would try to bribe her parents into letting her watch tv, or stay up late - it's when children mimic our behaviour and we realise how it makes us feel that sometimes it becomes clear how manipulative this 'discipline' is
There have been a few discussions on this recently and I loved blueshoes' post here:
But I am proud not to use short-cuts to good behaviour like smacking (or locking in rooms or threatening to remove something a child is looking forward to). Instead, I am prepared to take the time to instruct, negotiate, inconvenience myself to soothe hurt emotions, however long it takes, even though it takes a lot more effort.
"To me, it is not about good behaviour per se (external). It is about bringing about good behaviour by developing the child's intrinsic self-motivation (internal). It takes a long time to cultivate this (some adults never get there!). But I believe modelling fairness and not exploiting our inherent power over children, is key to this. It is not a race to achieve good behaviour. It is about nurturing self-motivated resilient adults who internalise our values."
This is what I would like to aim for. I think all other so-called discipline techniques have big big drawbacks.