At the beginning of the summer we started an incentive program to keep our kids motivated and give them a chance to earn some special rewards. It worked GREAT! We’re not opposed to bribery at this house. They earned tickets for doing their regular chores and small jobs, but they also knew that mom was watching for special acts of service and kindness. I was more than happy to pass out extra tickets when I could tell they were trying extra hard to serve each other or be a peacemaker. The ultimate reward was a one-on-one date with Mom & Dad for 100 tickets. We have been wanting to do this with each of the kids anyways, but it was great for them to earn it themselves.
Brady made sure he was the FIRST one to reach the 100-ticket goal. He did cute things like making my bed in the morning and slipping treats under the kids’ pillows so that he could earn over and above his daily chore tickets. He chose to go to Gameworks for his date. He told us it was the BEST day of his life! He really did have an AMAZINGLY lucky night at the arcade. He won three different jackpots and ended up with over 1,500 tickets. He chose to eat at our family’s very favorite restaurant, Caramba’s.
Camryn chose to go to Charming Charlie’s for her date. It is an AMAZING girly store with tons and tons of cute things to look at. She had a blast trying on everything and picked out a few fun things to keep. We finished off at Yogurtology. Her eyes were huge looking at all of the different candy toppings. Such a fun place!
For Carter’s date we went to Benihana’s for a YUMMY dinner. Carter loved it, but especially just loved being the only child for the night. We finished off the night by playing some games at Dave & Busters. Carter thought it was funny to see mom actually playing video games (and enjoying it!).
Since Sawyer is still young, it’s been a little more difficult for him to earn tickets. I think I’m going to bend the rules a little for him and just plan his date because he deserves it for being so DANG cute! Whenever I ask him what he wants to do, he says, “Goofy Golf”. So we will be planning that soon and I’ll be sure to update the blog.
As with any chore chart or incentive program, the excitement always dies after a few months and I have to come up with something new to keep everyone motivated. The tickets did their job, though, because all I wanted was a little order in my house for the summer and a chance to spend one-on-one time with each child. They all had such a great time having our undivided attention for several hours. I’m hoping these are memories they will never forget.
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