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Are Happy Tokens a reward system? Well, I suppose they kinda have to be because I don’t think there has been a phrase or label invented for them.

Of course, the premise is to issue a ‘reward’ for reaching some sort of goal.

To be honest I’m not entirely comfortable with the whole idea of reward systems. It’s a little like throwing a dog a treat for being obedient and obedience is not a trait I want to encourage too much in my children. I’m not looking to raise my children to follow instructions blindly and doing as they are told without question. That, to me, holds a kind of danger in itself – very authoritarian and not a look I’m going for!

However, and here’s the rub, I do want my children to recognise their own strengths, weakness and achievements. I also want them know that I recognise those too, that I want to share and celebrate their progress and development. I want to open up the channels of communication as wide as possible – I do love a good natter.

So, what kind of system is that? What would you call it if not a reward system? Parenting? Better Parenting? Improved Parenting? Erm, well, would you buy a Parenting System? I’m sure you see where I’m coming from?

Anyhoo, I really did try and stay away from the whole reward system label and drew some great comparisons from society. Namely that a large percentage of us work for a living. We usually work for money. We all work for some sort of reward and sometimes we work harder for incentives such as bonus’ or days in lieu. Yes we live in a Token Economy – guess where the name for my tokens and their shape came from. I have done my research. But I digress.

Now, this is something I want my children to learn. A good work ethic. I want them to learn give and take, that effort should be appreciated that progress should be recognised – just as it would be in healthy work environment.

But that all helps nought when it comes to the name of the Happy Tokens Systems. And that is why I have simply tried to name it all a System. I still must describe it as a reward system which I don’t feel fully conveys the intention and capacity of it all but those who know the system and use it are those that matter and to be honest if you are a Happy Token customer then I am preaching to the converted😊