Cotton Ball Reward System

Let’s get down to the nitty gritty. I am a mom who believes in bribing her children. It works for us and it worked for me when I was a kid. Now before you go crazy and tell me the reasons why I shouldn’t bribe my children, if you have any, let me tell you why we do it. 

 

First, I feel like our entire life is a system of rewards and consequences, even as adults. For example; you do something illegal, you go to jail. You work hard, you get a raise. You work hard in school, you get good grades. Good grades = scholarship etc… 

 

Here’s the kicker though, I don’t like bribing my kids with money. They already have SO much already. They are spoiled by their parents and their grandparents and their GREAT grandparents. We have WAY too much stuff and because of that, I don’t want them constantly asking for more and more things. 

 

Here’s where the cotton balls come in. 

 

Each kid has their own jar and each full jar has it’s own rewards. We like to do experiences, like a date with Mom or Dad, or a trip to the swimming pool. One time my kids turned in their cotton balls to pay for a movie they really wanted to watch on Amazon as a family. You get the idea.

 

Cotton balls can be given for any reason. My kids get them for getting their homework done in a timely manner, without complaining, cleaning their rooms without complaining, listening to mom without being told a gazillion times, and pretty much anything I feel like giving them cotton balls for. 

 

Cotton balls can also be taken away for any reason. I always give warning before I do this. Like, if you don’t hand in your homework today, I’m going to have to take away 2 cotton balls. If you lose all of your cotton balls, you lose a toy or an experience. A certain someone in our family recently lost his scout privileges for a month because he wasn’t handing in his homework AT ALL. All those hours of  homework at home and he wasn’t doing the easy part of handing it in…frustrating. It was a hard lesson, but we have scouts back now and the jar is getting filled again. 

 

You’d be surprised how excited the kids get when I tell them they get a “BONUS COTTONBALL!” You’d think I handed them a million dollars. It’s fun for the kids and I like that they can see their progress! And I’m not constantly handing them candy or toys all the time.