‘You get a TV in your room if you get rid of those unsatisfactory’
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Whether it’s to make sure your child suddenly starts paying attention in class or to make sure they’re on time in the first place. It’s sometimes quite handy, such a bribe with extra screen time.
Manon (39) is mother of Kris (11) and Rosa (8):
“When Kris was in the fifth grade of primary school, covid erupted. Before I knew it I was teaching at the kitchen table. Cozy of course. Although I soon noticed that she rushed through the questions of certain subjects. Kris then only read half of an assignment, so her answers started out correct, but were never complete. A shame, I thought, and I kept trying to point it out to Kris: read the whole question. But she just refused.
Insufficient
The next report was not good. There were two big fat failures: a 4.5 for reading comprehension and a 5 for spelling. Exactly those subjects where she never read the assignments. I suspected sheer laziness or indifference.
And eh yes, it could just be that my husband and I subsequently promised her a TV in her room, provided that those failings were eliminated in the next report… Suddenly the lady started to read. With a clear goal in mind, those failing grades were raised to a 6.5 and 7 in no time. Pedagogically incorrect? Doubtless. But effective? That’s for sure.”
Read also – “I bribe my kids with desserts and screen time and I don’t care” >
To do list
Sabrina (27), mother of Jayden (7) and Zomeya (3):
“Jayden doesn’t get an hour of screen time every day until he’s done all of his chores. We have a list here at home with tasks such as ‘clearing the table’ and ‘reading a book before going to sleep’. He has to do three or four a day. Every job he hasn’t done takes him five minutes.
“We keep track of his earned screen time with a kitchen timer”
We put that in place a year ago, when screen time was really getting out of hand here. He really didn’t want anything else. This works great. We keep track of his earned time with a kitchen timer. Although he regularly loses a few minutes. Usually with a big mouth or bullying his sister.”
The early bird
Ophelie (38), daughter’s mother is called Chloé (10) and Emile (7):
“In the morning I give the children twenty minutes to get dressed, eat their sandwich, brush their teeth and put on shoes. Anything left over can be used to watch TV. This construction started when Emile went to group 1 and invariably finished too late. I’m a nurse, so I don’t have much time in the morning. But this works fine. This morning Emile was able to watch two whole minutes of an episode of Night Watch.”
77% of mothers in the Netherlands have to deal with mom shaming, according to research by Kek Mama. The editors found this so shocking that they started a campaign: Kek Mama launches mombracing, the counterpart of momshaming, and calls on all mothers to support each other instead of criticizing from now on.
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