Ever Bribe Your Kids? I do!

My child is smart.

No really, he is.  I know he is.  How?  Mostly because he's a smart ass.

And only someone with a high amount of intelligence can be that quick on his toes at age 5.  Well, and I have other reasons too I suppose.... like the fact that he knows the downtown area better than I do (sadly, I'm not joking) and that his spatial reasoning and ability blows mine out of the water (again, not joking).

But he won't perform.

You know what I'm talking about....  The children that randomly come find you at the grocery store, asks you what your name is, and then proceed to tell you that they're 4 years old and everything else they know.

Yea, that's not my kid.

In fact, even when we're at home by ourselves I have a hard time pulling information out of him that I know he has to know.

It's getting better as he gets older, but honestly when he was 4 and his teachers told me he could count to 100 I about fell out in the floor.  MY child?!  Seriously?  I don't think I'd ever heard him count past 10.

He's five and finally a few months ago I heard him sing the alphabet for the first time.  I've known he was capable of doing it for a long time.  After all, the child's been writing his damn name for almost two years.  He'll even "accidently" slip up in front of me occasionally and admit that he recognizes that a certain letter is a lowercase "L," etc.  "Ah-HA!  You ARE smart!"

I don't know if this is because he's a boy, or WHAT but it makes parenting a little scary.  Fortunately, he doesn't act like this at school so I have confidence that he'll do well when he begins kindergarten in August.  And again, it's getting better.

Well, a few months ago I realized that I'd never worked with him on learning my phone number.  And in order to get him to ADMIT to me that he knew what it was (and to recite it on command) I knew I was going to have to bribe him.

So I did what any good parent would do.... I bribed him.

And it was the mother of all bribes.  "If you'll memorize my phone number, I'll take you to Toys R Us and let you buy anything that you want."

Yes, you'd be correct if you assumed the following two things from the previous statement.  1)  It was important to me that I be absolutely certain that he KNOWS my phone number by heart in case of emergencies.  2)  My kid is that unwilling to perform on command otherwise.

So, overnight he had my phone number memorized.  (Imagine that!)  But, to make sure that he really, really had it memorized... that it was permanently stored in his brain, I've made him recite it a few times a week over the past few months.  Let's just say I have no doubt in my mind that he definitely knows it.  (Whew!)

Well last night, the time finally came for me to live up to my end of the bargain.  Thankfully, the damage was only $50.  (We all know it easily could have been 10x that.)

What'd he buy?

Picture Source

Fun for the whole family!  It was a win.  :)  

I got what I wanted (the peace of mind knowing my stubborn child, without a doubt, knows my phone number in case of an emergency) and it only cost me $50.  

Plus, I picked a little something up for me while I was there too.  

Picture Source

Nothing like reliving your childhood, huh?  ;)

So yea, I bribed my child.  Yea, I'm sure you're "not supposed to do that."  But let me tell you... it was worth every penny!

Have you ever bribed your kids?  Do share.