Good Grades Reward

Do tell. What did you get as a kid when you brought home a good report card? Ben brought home his very first report card this Friday. He got all good "grades". Of course, this means we are crossing yet another milestone in our marriage. A time of discussion and BIG decisions. The question of the day: What kind of reward does he get for good grades? Realize of course, that Ben has no idea what a report card is yet or the impending doom that it can potentially be for high school kids. He also has no concept of the fact that it could be a cash cow he could milk for the next 13 years to bleed us dry. I know people that got over $250 each quarter - that's a $1,000 a year for doing what you're supposed to do anyway. If you're a student you job is to study. Anyway, it's all up to us and it's time to start setting a precedence for this brood we call the Zufelt Zoo. Here's generally how I remember the conversation with Brian going... B: "So do we give him anything for doing a good job?" A: "I guess we could. He did a good job. But I don't want it to be something HUGE. I mean, really, on a basic level, good grades are more of an expectation than a magical surprise to which we must heap mountains of praise and reward upon the child." B: "What kind of thing were you thinking?" A: "I don't know. What were you thinking?" Neither one of us wants to break first. You know how that goes. Isn't a rule of negotiation that the first person to put forth a proposal is the automatic looser of the negotiation? B: "What did you get as a kid for good grades?" A: "I know we had a couple choices, but I remember we pretty much always chose to have a week of hot lunch at school." B: Bursts into open, wild laughter!! Smile from ear to ear. "You got what?" A: "Hot lunch for a week. It was AWESOME!!" Now he's laughing so hard he is almost crying. B: "You got PUNISHED for good grades?" Shaking his head, he wipes the tears of laughter from his eyes. "That really sucks! Wow. I would have hated that. We always had to have hot lunch at school. A real treat would have been COLD lunch. That was cool." A: "Whatever. I had cold lunch every day of my life. I think sometimes we got to choose a box of cold cereal if we wanted." B: (still laughing) "Seriously?" A: "Yeah. We never got sugar cereal for breakfast. Ever. Why are you laughing?" B: "I guess I'm laughing because I know your family and that is just exactly, well, your family." A: "So what did you get for good grades?" B: "Nothing." A: "Nothing? No way. Nothing at all?" B: "Nope." A: "I don't believe it." I don't think we ever concluded our conversation about what to do for poor Ben. We got all excited and I called my sister and brother in law to see what they got growing up (hot lunch for my sister, cash for the bro-in-law). Then we called Brian's brother and had him call his wife to report back. I had to make sure Brian wasn't lying. Sure enough. They didn't get a darn thing. They think maybe that they might have gotten to go to dinner as a family once in a while for good grades, but couldn't be sure.