Skip to main content

Pick your battles

I bribe my youngest all the time.
I'm afraid to take him places because I never know if he's going to behave or not.
I walk on eggshells-will he flip out because he doesn't like what theyre serving?
Will he whine because there's "nothing to do" (in the midst of 100 toys)
Bribery is way easier than not because...well, frankly because it works.
And makes my life a hell of a lot easier

Hosted a bbq for dear husbands work group.
"Now remember" I tell youngest (youre catching on that I rarely need to bribe oldest, right?)
"Now remember" I reiterate, share, be polite, talk when someone talks to you, and for gods sake wipe the sulking off your face. Your life isn't that bad.
What? Your mother made you wash your face? She took you to a restaurant that there was NOTHING for you to eat at? She asked you to help out with an errand?
Call DSS! You are living in a hell hole!

So when 2p rolled around and he was actually....well, being helpful, I figured maybe we're off to a good start.
And when people started arriving and he yelled out through his microphone that he was giving "house tours" and to "line up behind him" well...I couldn't help but contain the embarassment because people were feeding into it and frankly; he was out of my hair.
And when it came time for people to leave and the 7 year old little girl was crying because she wanted to keep playing with youngest...
well, then I almost did the happy dance right then and there.
Because; after all, it meant that my child was actually being nice to someone.
He wasn't sulking for the entire 3 hours and actually may have been entertaining and friendly and nice.
I knew it was in him
It's just not in him when I'm around

He didn't eat anything we served however other than the diving into the three major food groups:
vegetable (potato chips- Mommy, these are healthy right? Because they're POTATOES and potatoes are a vegetable, right mommy?)
dairy (ice cream. Ice cream is milk mommy. Like yogurt and cheese. So ice cream is good for you, right Mommy?)
and of course...sugar. (Gummy worms, brownies, popsicle and fruit. What's wrong with the fruit? It was attached to pound cake)
Gotta pick your battles....

Comments