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Monday, June 11, 2007

Bribery

I've realized on our last few trips to the mall, just me and the little boys, that I'm not above using bribery to get Bailey to stay in his stand up part of the stroller. The problem with the stand up stroller is his freedom to get on and off at his own little whim! Any time I stand still for even the shortest period of time, there he goes. Today he ran around the Payless Store while I paid for a pair of shoes they had for $6 for him. I was mortified because he could get behind the aisles and hide and I couldn't see him. The sales lady seemed to always know where he was, though. I finally got my hands on him and looked him in the eyes and said "Do you want a cookie? Do you want to go play? Then get in your seat!" Textbook parenting, I'm sure! For Bailey, it works and I'll continue using it until he figures out that the best way to stay out of trouble at the mall is to stay put! I know for sure that I used that line about 4 times in the hour we were at the mall today.

He also got a taste of his own medicine in the play area. A little boy was trying to get him out of the way so he could play with whatever Bailey was playing with at the time and must've grazed Bailey's eye with his hand because Bailey came over to me with his hand over his eye saying "eye, eye." I told him he was alright and he went back to play. A few minutes later the same little boy moved Bailey out of the way by holding onto his arm so Bailey came over to me holding his arm saying "arm, arm." I told him the same thing and he went back to playing. I like to see him get pushed around a little bit. Obviously if I had seen the boy do something extreme like punch him in the nose, I would've taken it a little more seriously.

Bailey and Maverick have on cute matching outfits today, but my chances of getting them together for a picture are pretty slim. We'll see if I can snap one before one or both get dirty. This will be the first and only time either wear these outfits because they're already a little snug. They were bought at a consignment sale so I didn't pay much for them. Actually, I didn't pay anything for them. Their GG bought them. Thanks GG!

5 comments:

Amanda said...

I am also a firm believer in bribery. My philosophy is if it works, do it! Why do you think Grace has 15 pairs of flip flops? And Ella has too much of everything? Bribery is every mommy's friend on any shopping trip!

Anonymous said...

Is it those little baseball outfits? Get a picture if you can so I can see how precious they look. Since they are already snug they probably will have outgrown them before I get to see them.

Love you all
GG

Anonymous said...

You're not alone. We would never make it through Target without a hot pretzel and a juice box or through Harris Teeter without a sugar cookie and a balloon. You gotta do what you gotta do!

Tracy

Matt Johnson said...

From an educator's point of view and having spent hours in educational psychology, I think bribery is considered classical conditioning.
The sight or smell of a cookie can condition Bailey into behaving. I know I sound smart now.

Pegsy said...

Good for you to not be so over protective of your kids! I let my kids get "beat up" on a little too! I can't stand mothers who freak out when my kids even look at their kids the wrong way!

And I also use bribery quite liberally, so don't feel bad! It works, so why not?!

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