This tip comes from my reader Allison….
We pay our kids to drink water at a restaurant. Â Soda, tea, etc. is $2+ in a restaurant, so we made a deal with our kids that if they order water (free) then we will give them a dollar. Â Fast food does not count since “meal deals” include a drink. Always read the kids menu because sometimes a drink is included with the meal. Â We still actually give them the dollar in those cases just for choosing the healthiest option.
(I love this idea!)
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My kids and I always drink water when we go out to eat. My husband is finally catching on. (sometimes) We don’t usually buy cokes for home either unless it’s a special occasion like birthdays or cookouts with friends.
I agree with Carra about the lemon with sugar, splenda, sweet n low, etc. to make your own lemonade when you go out. It’s free and so much healthier.
As for the reader that offered the suggestion of paying your kids to drink water, I have friends whose kids never drink water. Maybe that would be an idea for them, save them a dollar or more on buying a coke, and motivate the kids to drink more water. Sounds like a win win situation if that is the case. What kid doesn’t love money? And they can use that money for their own Disney’s saving account to spend on their own souveniers at Disney World- which would save the parents money too in the long run. :)
Have a great day everyone
I just wanted to clarify that I wasn’t criticizing the idea to pay kids to order water at restaurants. If that works for you and has your kids ordering water without whining or comlaining, I think that’s great! I have a 14 year old and an 11 year old and our practice is to always order water at restaurants. And it’s not just the kids – my husband and I order water as well. We save at least $10 on beverages every time we go out. One tip – when you order water, ask for a bowl of lemons. Squeeze 2 or 3 lemon wedges into your water, add Splenda (or sugar), and make lemonade! We do that quite often and it’s free!
My middle daughter had a kidney reflux when she was younger,and she constantly had silent UTI’s which meant she felt bad a lot of the time. We explained to her that drinking water would make her feel better and that if she only drank water we would be able to cut down on trips to the doctor.
Fast forward, she is almost 18, drinks more water than any teenager you ever met, and has had almost NO PIMPLES. Her complexion is gorgeous, and I am sure that the water is a big part of it. She is almost never sick, either, something else I attribute to all the water she drinks. Oh, and her weight is great too.
My husband and I both think this idea is brilliant. While we don’t have kids yet, it would be a great way to “make” yourself save for college. You could put that money into a college fund each time and not give it immediately to the kid. I wanted to go to college since I was 9 or 10 and I would have been thrilled to put this money into my savings account. Sometimes people do need incentives. My family had tons of junk food around when I was a kid and it was sometimes hard to resist. Sometimes parents aren’t the ones who care about being healthy…
Thank you, Allison and Kristin, for bringing up this great topic. While like many of the others, I do not intend to follow this suggestion, I do think that Denise makes a good point that we should not criticise without understanding others’ individual situations. And without this topic, I wouldn’t have read some of the other great suggestions in the comments.
My toddler is too young for this, and we have not yet started working on the next child, but I’m always ready to plan ahead.
While we have no intention of paying for drinks while out for anything but special occasions, so they will never get it in their heads that ordering anything else is even an option … I could see this tip being useful in some situations. For example, when we DO go out for a special occasion, I could give them the option of either having a Coke as a treat or getting a $1 as a treat. I never would have thought of this without this post.
I was wondering if this work with my husband also instead of an alchoholic beverage? It’s worth a try.
lol that’s great!
Remember that not everyone has young kids. Preteens and teenagers often want soda when they go out to eat. I think my nephew (who is 16) would drink water if I offered to pay him $1. I am going to try it.
My 6 and 4 year old would drink whatever I told them to. ;)
My kids kids have been raised on drinking water- but as they get jobs, and venture out on their own you have much less influence on their decision making. So that being said, I think paying them to order water, while showing them the cost difference is an AMAZING idea, and one they might take with them outside the home . My goal isnt to coupon to disney, but how to show my children a more frugal- yet equally enjoyable lifestyle. Thank you Kristen for all you do!
Wow people, lighten up! Kristen offers up suggestions to people on her blog on how they can creatively save money for things that aren’t quite in the budget. We all have different ideas on how we choose to raise a family as well as what choices we allow our children to make. I think it is a cute way to “redirect” kids into making better choices, with a bit of incentive. Not all parents choose to dictate everything in their households. Some parents occasionally allow their kids to be a part of the decision making process – helping them LEARN how to make good choices. Let’s try to respect the different ways we choose to parent!
I agree! I think people are missing the point, it is a suggestion to save money. Maybe you don’t even tell your kids you are doing it and order water anyways. :D
This is so silly to me, why would you pay your child to drink water?? You are paying the restaurant bill, if they don’t want to get water, tell them they get no drink at all or just don’t go out to eat, plain and simple, and if they don’t like it thats tough. When did we (as a society) become so weak to “let the children rule” instead of the parent?
And if your child is so addicted to soda and sugar maybe its time to put your foot down anyways.
My family usually gets soda at restaurants but I always stick with water since I cut myself off soda a few years ago. It’s so expensive now and unhealthy I wouldn’t ever pay for it. I don’t think I would pay my kids not to drink pop. I hope that if I have kids our house will be soda-free and I won’t have to worry about it. If it works for others and saves them money, then great, just not what I’d perfer to do.
We do not pay our kids to drink water. Soda is limited in our house to 1 or 2 per week per child. At dinner they can sometimes split one as a treat! My kids get water or milk for dinner. Friday or Saturday night out to eat they get a soda. Neither one of my children ever had a soda including Sprite until they were 5 years old. I have a BAD SODA habit and have curbed it to one 20 oz per day!
If this works for your individual family, then I think it’s a neat way to get kids involved with saving money for Disney (or whatever goal). That is what this site is about, after all. :)
We almost always drink water when we go out to restaurants because soda is so expensive. We don’t pay our kids to drink it, we just tell them they have to order water. They would rather order and drink soda but they get water because we’re the parents and we tell them to order it.
Agreed… We are the parents and we tell them what to order!
I think it is kind of funny someone is “paying” their child to order water. To me that isn’t something you should be paying your child to do. You instill that water is the better decision over soda. Having it sometimes can be a treat, but not the norm.
I agree, However I know that kids see what their parents do and what to follow in their every footstep. So before I got married (had kids) I made it a point to stop drinking soda, because I knew I was addicted to it and there was no way I was going to let my kids go near it. It was the hardest but best thing I ever did…. and as I bonus I lost 20lbs before my wedding ;)
I loooove diet coke. I never gave my son anything but water and milk because I didn’t want him to have this bad habit. He won’t even go near soda now (his choice) and he is ten. I figured kids get enough junk and sugar without the extra. I am a preschool teacher and I can tell you from many years experience that the kids that drink a lot of juice and milk don’t eat their food very well. If the drink is included (like fast food) I will order a milk and an ice water and we can save the milk for another time if he chooses not to drink it. Now if only I could break the habit…….
Great observations! Isn’t it funny that when I taught summer school we had to give each kid the “free breakfast” (i.e. government issued) which required that you give each a milk and a juice? Most kids picked chocolate milk and then got the same for lunch. How unhealthy and they wonder why these kids still have problems succeeding… :-)
I’m a diet Pepsi addict, myself. But when my son was about 2 1/2, I gave him some sparkling grape juice on Passover (I have that myself instead of wine) and he said the bubbles burned his tongue. So I told him that mommy’s soda has bubbles also and he wouldn’t like it – he’s 10 now and still refuses to drink soda. YAY! Alas, my daughter (7) was recently persuaded by some friends to try Sprite and has decided she likes it. I’m trying to keep her away from it by giving her seltzer as a treat instead.
My kids will order water if I say…”we are going out to eat. I don’t want to spend a lot of money. If we save money on dinner, we’ll be able to use the extra for ______________ (fill in the blank).” And they understand. I’m the mom…I don’t convince…I tell. :-)
Great idea! I wonder if it equally works with husbands ;) My daughter LOVES water… My husband however insists he MUST have a soda while we’re out. Wonder if I mention putting $2.59 into the Disney fund instead if he orders water will be enough incentive for him.
Husband’s probably require more than a $1 incentive. ;)
What we do is keep single serve packets (Crystal Light and so on) that you can put into water in the car. Then when we eat out, the kids WANT to have water because they can pick a packet to put in it. ;-) I also sometimes put packets in their school lunch bags because while they buy milk at lunch, they also take water bottles to school for the rest of the day, including aftercare. So sometimes for a treat, they’ll get a surprise packet!
Isn’t Crystal Lite made with artificial sweeteners? I’m sure it’s just me, but I would never ever give a child anything made with artificial sweeteners — I’ve never seen test results on what artificial sweeteners does to kids, so why would I take that risk?
But then again, that’s just me.
It’s not just you. I firmly believe that unless you are diabetic (or have very high blood pressure or some other life-threatening condition) and find it difficult to stay away from sugar, you should stay away from artificial sweeteners.
But I understand why so many use them.
I do LOVE those little packets, though, and I’ve tried to find something similar made without artificial sweeteners, and I cannot. Has anyone else had any luck?
The kool aid ones have one made with sugar and gatorade ones as well. We keep gatorade packets everywhere. We use them at the parks in our souvineer cup. Water is free at the parks souvineer cup or not so we just dump a pack in when the kids get sick of water.
Judge not, folks…
I’d much rather see a child drinking the occasional glass of Crystal Light instead of a 20 oz Coke. All things in moderation? Most definitely.
Water is best. Milk is full of sugars that rot teeth. A bottle of Coke has 150 calorie’s worth of high fructose corn syrup (cannot be broken down by your liver, do a little reading, it is NOT a natural product). Humans weren’t meant to live on corn syrup. Real labels. Educate yourself. I worked in a cookie factory 20 years ago and the lady that ran the lab warned me away from the HFCS they started using in all the cookies.
If you start your child off on water, they will want water. Start them off on apple juice, they won’t want water. Simple concept.
I gave up Diet Coke cold turkey ( a 2-L a day habit for +20 years) and now drink water. I got a MiO free in the mail – know what’s in it? Propelyne Glycol, also known as ANTI FREEZE. Um, no thanks! I have to say I feel better in the last three months than I’ve felt in the last 20 years. I no longer eat Ho Hos (LOL), and have given up nearly all processed foods because of joint pain issues. It doesn’t take long to clear that stuff from your body and you’ll feel better. But seriously? I do drink a little Crystal Light every so often. I drink coffee. I have an occasional glass of juice. And I even had a Diet Coke last weekend, though I didn’t really care for the taste of it anymore.
All things in moderation, folks. That’s how our grandparents did it. Learn from them!
I love that idea! Thanks for sharing. My kids love the Kool-Aid packets that are clear. My toddler thinks they are magic and I love that if they spill it won’t stain.
I’m not even a little worried about artificial sweeteners. Kids eat school lunches, rocks, and other things I don’t even care to consider. I’m pretty sure artificial sweetener is the least of my worries. Actually, my pediatrician recommended that I buy the unflavored Pedia-Lite for my kids when they are sick and flavor it with Crystal light because it tastes better. He is very much into healthy living and works hard to educate parents on how to avoid childhood obesity.