I took Ryan with me to hot yoga yesterday.\u00a0 Nathan had gone a while back with my friend Rebecca and came back with stories about how he’d never sweat so much in all his life.\u00a0 Then I started going and found out that he was right.\u00a0 The heat, plus the difficulty of the poses made for a very intense 90 minutes.<\/p>\n
Ryan likes a good challenge and asked if he could give it a go.\u00a0 So yesterday we went.\u00a0 In the lobby of the yoga studio was a girl who looked to be\u00a0about 16 years old.\u00a0 She was talking to the owner about the heat, not sure if she would be able to make it through, and wanted to know if she could get up and leave during the class.\u00a0 I’ve learned that that\u00a0is a no-no.\u00a0 I’ve also learned the heat isn’t as much of an issue as I, too,\u00a0thought it was going to be\u00a0when I first started.\u00a0 But the girl did not seemed convinced.<\/p>\n
When we got into the yoga room, I was surprised\u00a0to see that the 16-year old girl decided to stay.\u00a0 She ended up right behind Ryan…and right next to the exit door.\u00a0 I decided to go over and talk with her and allay some of her concerns about the heat.\u00a0 I told her that because the poses are so difficult and require a lot of concentration, the heat actually becomes secondary.\u00a0 And then I asked her what made her decide to come.<\/p>\n
“My mom gave me twenty bucks to come,”\u00a0 she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Really?\u00a0 So where was mom?\u00a0 Apparently\u00a0she had something better to do.<\/p>\n
I had to smile to myself, though,\u00a0about the twenty dollars.\u00a0 To a teenager, that is a lot of money.\u00a0 And the fact that she was so concerned about the heat, but stayed anyway, underscored the value of that money.\u00a0 It made me\u00a0think about\u00a0whether bribes were okay.<\/p>\n
I am not a believer in paying kids to do things they should do as a member of a family or community.\u00a0 For example, paying kids to clean up after themselves is not okay.\u00a0 Neither is paying them for their grades.\u00a0 But every now and then, like in the yoga example, I do think it’s okay to offer a monetary reward.\u00a0 The key is to never make it an on-going habit.\u00a0\u00a0Because that’s when\u00a0kids begin to expect a handout for everything they do.\u00a0 And raising entitled kids is not teaching them good money habits…or life habits.<\/p>\n
The 16-year old made it through the class just fine.\u00a0 As Ryan and I were leaving, she was asking about memberships.\u00a0 Ryan…he did awesome, as well.\u00a0 But in the car ride home, he never asked me about going back.\u00a0 He had proven he could do it…and was moving on to his next challenge -training for his first half-marathon.\u00a0 I’ll stick to yoga.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I took Ryan with me to hot yoga yesterday.\u00a0 Nathan had gone a while back with my friend Rebecca and came back with stories about how he’d never sweat so much in all his life.\u00a0 Then I started going and found out that he was right.\u00a0 The heat, plus the difficulty of the poses made for a very intense 90 minutes. Ryan likes a good challenge and asked if he could give it a go.\u00a0 So yesterday we went.\u00a0 In…<\/p>\n