lil' c starts pre-school: the art of bribery

big cabes started pre-school about a week and a half ago. he was pretty excited especially since he found out he'd get to ride in a bus in order to get there. aim and i were also pretty excited about not having to drive him there until we found out that the bus would pick him up at 6:50 am which wouldn't be the worst thing in the world except that caleb isn't a morning person (i typically am just getting back from a mini-iron man workout during which i spend time at the peak of mt. chrleston reading scriptures and pondering life around 6:50, so it's not biggie for me... it's cabes that struggles in the morning).

at first, the early mornings were no big deal; but, we all knew that day was quickly coming when it would require an all-out war to get the kid up, on the bus, and off to school before 6:50. unfortunately, the novelty of the situation wore off after only his first two days at which point aim and i had to do what any set of self-respecting, well-grounded parents would do... we resorted to bribery.

my experience is that bribery generally works with most kids. i have also found that by caleb's own admission, i am his "best buddy" when i buy him things that he wants. which is good to know, because caleb is a very formidable, if not masterful, opponent in matches of who can out-stubborn whom. there is no text book for negotiating with a child like our #2 and even if there ever was, i likely threw it out the window long ago while trying to convince caleb to do some tortuous task like eat lunch.

fine. he may be stubborn, but i'm smart. aimee's smart. therefore, together we must be smart squared. that's pretty dang smart (i think my claim of being smart just took a hit). the point? we have learned over the course of our dealings with caleb that negotiations are delicate and unpredictable. one day the threat of not being able to watch batman will work wonders, but then accomplish nothing the next. for me, the trick has been listening to caleb talk about what interests him at the time (i think i may be on to something with this listening stuff) and then using it as a carrot. of course some carrots are bigger than others and sometimes the size of the carrot is not as important as the timing of the delivery of the carrot.

lately, caleb has been wanting to go to chuck e. cheeze's (side note: hand sanitizing companies could increase sales by 200% by simply setting up shop in every chuck e. cheeze's in the country). boom: there's the carrot.

wednesday rolls around. this is a day to day battle. must be nimble. a new day calls for a new carrot. chuck e. cheeze's is a pretty big carrot. should be sufficient to incentivize him into getting up, getting ready and onto the bus without much effort. cell phone alarm clock goes off... hit snooze. goes off again, hit snooze again. goes off one more time, snooze one more time. goes off yet again and now we only have ten minutes to get him ready and on the bus (the school feeds him breakfast thank goodness).

negotiations begin.

caleb: i don't want to get up... i'm sleepy. you never let me sleep (it's true. we keep our kids up all night by spraying water on them as soon as they start to close their eyes).

aim/jer: (thought process: start small, see if it's enough. save cheeze's if possible) but caleb, don't you want to go to class, you're teacher is waiting...

caleb: no, i'm sleepy.

aim/jer: but caleb, the bus is on it's way. do you want us to have to call the bus driver and tell her to turn around because you don't want to go???

caleb: yes

aim/jer: are you sure??? that's not very nice....

caleb: yes, i'm sleepy.

aim/jer: (time is short. initiate plan b, bring out the big guns) caleb, what if we go to chuck e. cheeze's tonight? if you're a good boy and get up and get ready, we can go to chuck e. cheeze's

caleb: //silence// (did he go back to sleep, or is he thinking about it?)

aim/jer: don't you want to go to chuck e. cheeze's?

caleb: yes

we got him...

caleb: but, not tonight... (translation: you have no leverage here. move on to your next bargaining chip).

what??? back to the drawing board.

lately, that has been the typical morning around here. fortunately, caleb is loving pre-school (after he wakes up and gets there). as you can see from the pictures, he was pretty excited to go and has a good time while he is there. this helps get him motivated in the morning. he has been talking about this for months, so we are glad he is finally getting to do it.

i just realized it is sunday night and i have no carrots lined up for tomorrow's negotiations. i'm done.