Meaningful Returns

First of all, it’s not a bribe. There is no conflict of interest inherent in the parent-child relationship that would constitute bribery, the benefit of reading (the altered behavior) is derived by the party receiving the bribe, and c) you’re the parent and you can do whatever you want basically.

Let us call it incentivizing. And let us do it.

I’m very interested in how to incentivize children to do awesome things, because awesome things are worth doing. Reading is simply one of them (and reading is especially important in the stupidly long period known in traditional school calendars as “summer break”). You could also incentivize your kids to learn a new language or build something with Legos or start a small business. You could incentivize them to get better at basketball or soccer, to pick up a musical instrument and practice it, to memorize Pi to 40 digits, to learn to be more compassionate, to take a risk and write a play. I mean, really the sky’s the limit.

But how do we bribe incentivize them?

Here’s an interesting read from the Times about the reading question in particular (maybe behind a paywall, a trick if it is is to search the title on Google and you get behind the paywall). Here are the key takeaways:

1. Bribing kids is not inherently evil.
2. There can actually be real benefit to bribing them.
3. Bribery doesn’t have to mean “cash money.”
   1. In fact, though classic bribery might work for some kids, you may find more creative forms of bribery to be more effective: special outings with a parent, star charts, sibling competitions, etc.
4. Most importantly, create a family environment where doing awesome things is normal and encouraged and where failure is expected as part of the process rather than hidden from. Which is to say, YOU SHOULD BE DOING AWESOME THINGS YOURSELVES, PARENTS.