Hi PBA.
I dont want to use the word bribe, since it has a negative connotation.
I prefer to use the words reward and incentive.
Dont you think that each year that we, IyH, try to grow it yiddishkeit, that it may include changing our ways and in all cases it is not because we like those changes?
But since we impose upon ourselves the idea of heavenly reward, we stick with it, and, eventually, learn to not only like it, but love it.
Based on this, I think what is going on with the child is a good precedent for what the child should do for himself (in terms of the rewards and consequences) as he grows older and better in Torah and mitzvos.
Dare I say Hashem employs a similar school of thought to get us to do the right thing?