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Today my son took a Social Studies test that he had to cram for last night. He was overwhelmed and completely frustrated. I was totally stressed trying to understand the content so I could translate it into concepts he would remember. Social Studies was not my forte in school.
I could see he was losing steam and quickly adopting an ‘I don’t care about this’ attitude. At this point, all I could think about was what I could do to turn this situation around. Then I remembered what has motivated my son since he was a young child. Money. So I told him that if he did well on the test, I’d pay him five dollars.
Not only did I have his full attention for the remainder of the study session, but he was actually excited to do well. We skated through the content and he had nearly everything memorized by the time he went to bed. This morning we reviewed the information again and his teacher held a mini-study session before school, so I felt he was pretty well prepared.
As I dropped him off at school, I wished him well on the test, reminded him of the reward, and kissed him goodbye.
I said earlier that my son has been motivated by money since he was little. In fact, he was potty trained this way. Like many of you, I struggled with this skill with him for longer than I care to admit. One weekend, when we were visiting my parents, my son completed the “task” successfully. My father pulled out a few coins and handed them to him as a reward. He then gave me a handful of coins and told my son that every time he used the potty that I was to give him some money. In less than two days and about seventy-five cents, my son was completely potty-trained. He never wore another Pull-Up after that weekend.
So surely you can understand why I would go back to this tried and true method of motivating my son to do unpleasant tasks, right? I mean, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
I know there may be some of you who are gasping right now since you may not subscribe to this “pay for performance” strategy. But for a child who is not a good test taker and would rather be playing basketball than going to school, one has to resort to creative methods to incent the desired behavior.
By the way, he got a B on his social studies test and there was a crisp $5 bill waiting for him on his seat when I picked him up from school. And I hope there’ll be another one on his seat tomorrow as he has a science test. I may go broke, but my son will pass 7th grade.
I’m interested to know what other parents do to motivate their child. Do you pay for grades? Do you bribe with candy? I may need a plan B after my savings account goes dry, so share your strategies!
