Incentives are an important part of parenting and they can be particularly difficult to regulate. How can you offer your children attractive rewards without conditioning them to only perform when there is a reward involved? How can you decide what an appropriate reward is? Here are some of our best parenting tips to help you use rewards effectively with your children.
How to Use Rewards Effectively with Your Children
In order to use rewards with your children the right way, follow these simple tips:
- Don’t start using rewards to motivate behavior until your children can properly understand what they are (around age 3)
- Make rewards almost immediate to help your children understand the cause and effect nature of rewards
- Use behavior or sticker charts to help offer a direct visualization for your child of their reward progress
- Set realistic and specific goals that your children can understand
- Don’t set too many goals with different rewards at the same time
- Help your children to reach their goals by working with them to set benchmarks
Why Are Rewards Potentially Dangerous?
While rewards can be very motivating, they can turn into a bad thing if you aren’t careful with your parenting:
- Too many rewards can lead to nagging on behalf of the child
- Rewards that aren’t effective might lead to the parent nagging
- Rewards can take away self-motivation to do the right thing or get the job done
- Children who receive too many rewards, or who receive rewards too frequently, can become spoiled or entitled and expect rewards for just about everything
Claire’s Gourmet Keeps Fundraising Fun!
If you are looking for a way to help your children and the organizations they are involved in develop fundraising strategies, hosting a fundraiser with Claire’s Gourmet is a great way to do so. We are happy to help you every step of the way, from choosing the delicious products to sell, to planning the fundraiser, to keeping track of your progress online, we have you covered. We have been working in schools and organizations since 1969 to offer high-quality products like gourmet desserts, pizza, popcorn, and sweet treats that sell themselves and help you meet your fundraising goals. For more information on our fundraising programs, visit us online or give us a call at 800-359-1919. For more fun fundraising tips, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest.