According to a recently published article on RedOrbit, many parents admit they bribe their kids for everything from getting good grades, to cleaning up their dishes after dinner and going to bed on time.

It's definitely easier to throw a reward out there for good behavior, than to exhibit the kind of consistent parenting that helps kids do what's expected of them without expectation of reward. That might sound a little judgemental, but I really don't think we're doing our kids any favors by bribing them.

Isn't it our job as parents to prepare our kids for the real world? The real world doesn't give you a medal every time you do what's expected of you, so why should we build that expectation in our kids?

I think it's perfectly reasonable to expect our kids to finish their food and take their dishes to the sink when they're finished eating. That's definitely not something that kids will naturally volunteer to do, but it's also not something worthy of a reward - it's simply expected behavior (or should be anyway imho).

If our kids want to earn some money, then we'll give them some extra chores to do. Vacuuming the living room, or helping to clean a bathroom are not tasks that we expect our kids to perform, so they're worthy of a reward.

Picking up their rooms after play time is however expected behavior, and so we don't reward them for doing it.

It's not the easiest route to take, but we're consistent with it, and there are consequences we can impose if expected tasks are not completed. Consequences like "sorry, but you won't be able to go to your friend's house until you have finished cleaning your room". It's way harder to crack down when the kids get older; it's much easier to start hard and loosen the reigns later on.