What is the best way to motivate your kids?
Post your answer in the LEAVE A COMMENT section below. I’m not the boss of you, though. Don’t write anything for all I care! How’s that for motivation?
. . .here are my thoughts.
What is the best way to motivate your kids?
Define “kids.” Must they have 2 legs? If so, are you going to disown a child with an amputated leg? Okay, obviously I’m inferring the 4-legged kind—dogs, most notably. I don’t have kids of the human variety, so I’m not exactly sure how to answer this question. But a lack of experience or understanding has never stopped me before. Dogs are highly motivated by food, and— presumably—human offspring are as well. A few days without sustenance would probably serve as motivation. But you’d risk getting a visit from a government agency or two. Dogs somewhat understand a harsh tone and a quick smack on the butt or tap on the nose. From what I hear, though, spanking kids is obsolete, and a rhinoplasty can be expensive if that tap on the nose morphs into a right hook. The best motivation for an adult is incremental advancement toward successful accomplishment of personal goals. This may not be relevant if a kid’s life goal is to win the next Fortnite Battle Royale. Maybe just love your puppies/kids, keep them fed and alive, and hope they don’t call Child Protective Services.
As Brad has already mentioned, we do not have human children, so the only experience I have with this topic is being a teacher for 14 years and as a child myself. And from both perspectives I think the way to motivate is to make the relationship with a child the priority. I was am still am very close with my parents. However, they were not my “friends” when I was growing up. I was punished, spanked, smacked (sometimes with the wooden spoon), etc. I knew my parents meant business and that they would hold me accountable if I did something wrong. I also knew they loved me very much would do anything for me. I did not want to disappoint them. Sometimes my behavior did disappointment them and they told me WHY it was disappointing. They talked to me, but they listened too. They expected me to do the right thing, and when I messed up they STILL expected me to do the right thing…next time. I truly believe that children WANT boundaries. They want to be held accountable. Letting them get away with anything indicates that you really don’t care all that much…because holding someone accountable is hard. Actions speak louder than words, so showing a child that you care means everything. And sometimes showing that you care means being the bad guy and making kids really mad…so mad they may not like you for a while. Personally, I think too many adults these days just don’t know how to deal with kids that get angry, so they try to avoid that at all costs. Knowing that you have someone that expects you to do the right thing, will call you out if you don’t, and that will love you anyway but will also expect you to do it differently next time…that’s a motivator.
Go ahead people . . . beat that!
Well said.
I too don’t have kids but I have a cat and food definitely motivates her. As for children I can only speak by experience from my childhood. I too had the wooden spoon from mom. Sue and I would laugh and play when mom put us to bed. She gave two warnings before coming in swinging with the wooden spoon and never turn on the light. I would hide under Sue so she got the worst of it. A little tough love was good for the soul and made us respect authority. Motivation to be a good person, work hard, and love unconditional was by example. Kids today don’t have respect for anyone or anything and want everything handed to them. So I don’t know how you motivate someone like that. One of the reasons I retired because I didn’t like supervising this new generation.
Surprised we still have as many educators as we do.
I was motivated by a hard swat with the ever present wooden spoon. Mom was good with the wooden spoon. She even broke one on my behind. My cousin TeeNee and I decided we would stamp our feet and scream while sitting on the steps. We ignored all pleads for us to stop. Then out came old faithful and when she hit me the top half broke off and hit my cousin. It was a 2 for 1. Poor parents now cant do that. They would be charged with child abuse. It’s love, not child abuse. Those little love pats did me no harm.
The motivation I use on my grandson is very expensive. I motivate him with a gift card, money or even an expensive pair of tennis shoes. I would rather use the old fashioned wooden spoon. He is 16 years old now, 6’ tall and weighs 250 lbs. I just don’t think my 5’1” frame swinging a wooden spoon would frighten him much. He knows how to use it. I’ll do this if you do that. Drives me crazy. That would never have worked with my mom. On second thought it probably would of worked on Grandma Carfolo. She was my angel.
One day I decided to try using what he sometimes used when he was little. A temper tantrum. I started jumping up and down screaming and I swore at him. He looked at me and said, “Nana, please don’t swear anymore. I don’t like to hear you swear. Little pain didn’t think it was lady like. Gotta love our Jake.
Can’t physically assault kids, but can we still verbally assault them?
The question needs answered: did you have a rock hard butt, or was it a faulty wooden spoon?
Hard butt and Mom had a mean swing