A Little Bribery

The Before you become a parent you always say what you are not going to do. That you will become the perfect parent and never do this and never do that. I most certainly was never going to resort to bribing my child into doing anything...nope, not me. Well, I was wrong. I was wrong on many things. Being a parent is hard and saying you are not going to be "that parent" when you have no idea what parenting is like is absolutely ridiculous. I wish I could go back and tell my "pre-kid self" that, but I can't. Now, I just laugh at people with no kids say "this and that" about parenting. Boy, they have no idea.

Anyway, back to my bribing story. Max has been addicted to his paci and he is three years old. Another thing I said I wouldn't do if I was a parent...allow my kid to have a paci past 12 months old. Well, here we are past his third birthday and finally giving up the paci. We initially said he couldn't have it past two years old. Well, his second birthday came and we removed it from the car seats in both cars, but couldn't get rid of it for bed time or nap time at home. Ms. Marie did not allow the paci during nap time at her house past 12 months old, but some how we couldn't get rid of it at our house. We started slowly by removing them from the car seats and then telling ourselves that by his third birthday the paci would be officially gone. Just like that, his fire truck themed third birthday came and went and Max was still going to bed with a paci. Ugh! I tried to "forget" the paci when we went to the cabin for Fourth of July, but realized we had other people in the cabin and it wasn't fair to them to listen to Max's tantrum at bed time. So, I miraculously "found" it in the bag of clothes. Max was thrilled. I then thought of doing the same thing when we went camping and on the drive up Andy said it was a bad idea: toddler screaming his face off in the pitch black night in a tent where everyone could probably hear him for miles was probably not a good idea. I also tried reasoning with him many nights and that was not the route to go. I began to wonder if I was going to have a kid with messed up teeth because we were never going to get rid of this thing.

Then, the other night Max asked for the Paw Patroler vehicle at Target and Andy said no. They got home and Max told me all about it and asked for it from me. I told him maybe some day. Then Andy had a great idea. Let's trade the paci for the Paw Patroler vehicle. I negotiated with Max and he responded way too quickly that he was willing to trade. I realized he didn't understand the deal, so I told him that he can think about it and use his paci for one more night and if he still felt the same way in the morning we will go to Target after Ms. Marie's house and we can make the trade. He woke up in the morning and came into the bathroom to hand over his paci because he is a big boy and he wants the Paw Patroler vehicle. I explained that the trade was for good and not just one night. He said ok.

I came home from work to one happy little boy with his new toy and the paci was safely tucked hidden away where Max couldn't find it.

It's 8pm and bed time. Time to go potty, brush teeth and get tucked into bed. Once in bed Max says "Where'd my paci go." Here we go....we explained the trade and Max lost it. "I neeeeeeeed my paci" complete with tears and all out crying. I re-explained to him the trade off. He didn't care. I then gave him the choice to keep his paci and I will return the PP vehicle to Target or keep the vehicle and I will keep the paci. He chose the vehicle. We are on nought three and paci free...and just like that we got over the paci and we became the parents we said we would "never" be. HA HA!