Reward systems

Thanks for the comment Suzanne yesterday about the concept of rewarding grandchildren with food itmes other than the "usual" high-caloric sources such as cookies.

No matter what the age, I believe we all reward ourselves at times with high-caloric food sources. Why? Well, first of all, they taste good, they are readily available and they are relatively inexpensive. Non-caloric rewards, such as treating yourself to a massage, going on a vacation, buying a new clothes item...all of these are rewards but they are delayed in their gratification and they are costly. We, as humans, do tend to be an immediate gratification specie. Least you doubt that, read an article about the savings rate in America. It is abysmally low, and the reason is that once again, buying a wide screen television or a new car is an immeidate gratification as opposed to socking money away in a retirement account.

It does start by rewarding our children and grandchildren with things other than cookies and candies. Teaching them at an early age that rewards do not have to be in the form of high-caloric food items may shape their minds futuristically to not reward themselves in that manner.