Have you ever bribed offered a reward to your child to encourage him/her to attain a goal?

A couple of years ago, my kids wanted new computers. So I made a deal with them: I agreed to buy the new computers when the school year ended — they wanted them for their summer vacation when they could play a certain game — if they achieved an agreed-upon grade point average.

All that semester, they asked me repeatedly, as they proudly showed me their graded tests and papers, “Mom, if we keep this up, we’re going to get our computers, right?”

“Absolutely,” I would tell them as I posted more “A” papers on the refrigerator.

“You would be so pretty if only you would lose weight.”

I remember how their eyes lit up when the UPS truck stopped in front of the house and the driver rang the doorbell with a big smile on his face.

“Did somebody here get good grades?” he asked as he brought in the boxes.

But have you ever bribed your child to lose weight?

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There is a meme making its way around the blog world: “Ten Lies My Mother Told Me.” When I first discovered it, I reada few of the responses. Some of them were really clever and funny. Some more serious.

But the meme itself and those responses got me started thinking about my childhood experiences and my relationship with my mother vis a vis my weight and self-image.

After considering those topics for a few days now, I can only remember one lie that my mother ever told me.

You might be saying, “Wow, that’s amazing” or thinking that senility has set in and I’m simply unable to recall all the lies she told me over the years. Perhaps you’re even thinking that I’ve repressed the lies — little, white or other — she told me in the deep recesses of my brain and, perhaps through intense psychotherapy, they could be retrieved and examined.

Wrong on all counts.

My mother was simply a straight-up, honest — blunt — person. “Boy, that apple landed close to the tree,” you’re thinking.

The Lie

She told me only one thing that wasn’t true, but she did so repeatedly over the course of many years, even when I was well into adulthood:

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And on Labor Day, I . . . labored!

I cleaned out my closet! I filled two extra large trash bags with clothes that are too big! They are on their way to a worthwhile charity.

Wow. There is a lot more room in my closet now and I can actually see clearly what clothes are hanging on the rack.

I also found the bottom of the laundry pile. No kidding. I don’t think I’ve seen it since . . . well, probably last Labor Day! I have laundered myself into a tizzy, but the laundry room has absolutely no baskets of clothes waiting to be washed, the hampers are empty, the bathroom cupboards are bulging with clean towels and linens. I’m surprised there wasn’t a power outage, considering that the washer, dryer, dishwasher and air conditioner have been using up the kilowatts all day long.

In the process of taking a serious inventory of my clothing, I realized something: I hate virtually my entire wardrobe.

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There is a brand new group blogging exercise beginning today at Multi-Tasking Moms called “Go Figure.” Each Friday, participants share tips on exercise, weight loss and health, and offer each other support and encouragement.

The timing of this new meme is serendipitous because I took today off work to enjoy a long weekend and get some things done around the house.

Time to Again Take Inventory

Among those things is again tackling the closet. I am still wearing too many clothes that simply no longer fit and they are decidedly unflattering. They have to go.

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