A few weeks ago, I wrote about how electronic devices are a motivation for the Monster. (See What’s My Motivation) And, indeed, they are – it’s something that we know he’ll happily play with and devote attention to, and that he’s at least picking up a few good things from.
On the other hand, the electronics are not a motivation when it comes to his homework. This still has been an ongoing struggle, and while I do sympathize… he has to get it done.
Now, we’re not always the greatest help with this, so far. This weekend, for example, we just put off doing the homework until it was late on Sunday (we’d forgotten that we had a birthday party for our nephew to attend), and then we had to scramble on it this morning. Obviously, with his behaviors, this throws him off massively, and just pushes towards other outbursts.
I’ll admit (without much shame) that I’ve resorted to giving him snack-based incentives to get the work done.
Aside from electronics, the Monster’s most motivated by food. He has few qualms about asking for his favorite snacks – it’s one of the few times that he’ll actually speak up and has incentive to speak clearly – and I’m more than willing to work with his behaviors than against them if it gets my goals accomplished. In this case, my issue is ensuring that he actually gets his assignments done and proves he can do them so that he keeps up with the academic side of things.
The worst is knowing that I’m probably setting myself up for failure in some other fashion. After all, he is being bribed to do it. (One could argue that salary’s a bribe to get me to do my job as well, but…) I figure this is going to either backfire at some point with him always expecting the reward for doing his homework or with his weight, but… it’s easier frankly than having him go to school with a note explaining why he’s remiss in bringing in his assignments.
Now if I could at least get him to go for an apple as a reward instead of animal crackers… and at breakfast no less…