What are your thoughts on bribery?

[BroccoliSpears]

Earlier this afternoon I was trying to cut my little girl's nails. She's 19 months. She hates having it done. She was struggling and whining - I could have been firm and managed to continue with much jollying along and Being Firm, but instead I said that once we'd cut her nails she could have some chocolate. She thought for a fraction of a second before cheerfully proffering her hand to get the nails cut.

Do you think I

(a) Made an unpleasant task less stressful and unpleasant for both of us.

(b) Reinforced the idea that nail cutting is bad and has to be rewarded with chocolate.

(c) Neither of the above. Please explain.

Okay, I'll give you some chocolate if you share your thoughts .

A

it is not called bribery.....

It is called and incentive!!!

works for me, and the least stress the better in my book

sooooooooo, after careful thought

A

I'm all for it! Although I never refer to it as bribery, more likely to call it a reward for good behaviour, or encouragement My children get such 'rewards' (always very small) for unpleasant things. You will probably find that this way, she will start thinking of cutting nails as fun, and after 2 or 3 times will not need a reward at all. I tell myself I am simply chosing my battles.

I prefer to think of it as reward/encouragemnt, not bribery

See it from her point of view. It's not nice getting her nails cut. You helped make it a little easier.

(we used to do it in front of TV. after bath helped too as nails are softer. ds is now 4.5 and it's less of a trauma, but still not pleasant.)

a

she's only 19 months old and it was chocolate, not fags or booze!

I'll do anything if I'm offered chocolate!

OMDB - come here then I've got a BIG BIG bar of galaxy in the fridge and whoever comes and cleans my house can have it

Just getting my coat on Wisteria, what's the address?

Shitehole House
Messy Street
Untidy City
Nottinghamshire

PS - MIL comes for tea tomorrow

lol @ wisteria

Oh good. I still have an uneasy feeling that bribery incentivising isn't ideal, but you lot have said sensible things so I feel better. I think my mother had a Big Thing about never rewarding children for things they should just get on with and do. It's probably that, that made me wonder.

I think you should definitely bribe reward for all good behaviour - whether it's with praise or a little treat.
Remember the good old days when you got a lump of sugar for the polio jab? Was far less traumatic for the wee ones.

i used to avoid bribery but now i just want a quiet life

definitely (a)
am tempted to try it next time with my dd (20 months), I just don't know if she'll get the concept of afterwards

might be worth a try though-she tends to act as though I'm trying to pull the flaming things out rather than just giving them a bit of a trim...

lol wisteria, with an address like that I'm not sure one chocolate bar will do it!

Occasional bribes/incentives/treats don't do any harm really do they?

it's a bloody big bar m8 and anyway, I'm not a complete scutter