Bribery

Sophia is learning all about taking bribes, or um, being rewarded with good behavior. Add this to the list of things I said I would never do when I had my own kid. This is where theory absolutely doesn't match up to practice. I go back into the cobwebbed corners of my mind when I took all those Child Development classes in college, and I specifically remember bribing with food as not a good thing. Have you seen my child? She loves food. Stamps just don't cut it for her. A cookie, on the other hand, well that gets results. After the millionth struggle on the changing table, it dawned on me to tell her I'll give her a cookie if she'll be a good girl and let me change her diaper. She readily agreed and we walked over to the cupboard where I took out an animal cracker and held onto it until I set her down on the table. She was an angel. She held up her end of the bargain and was a good little girl. So I have to admit that I've used this little trick a few more times since then, all with excellent results. And I've even been able to change her diaper without the bribe a few times, I'm thinking it's because she's stopped associating getting her diaper changed with throwing a fit.
Today it was time to clip her nails. I get anxiety thinking about the amount of fit throwing that will occur. But I decided to offer her a cookie for each hand, and she nodded her head profusely. So we headed back to the cupboard and I extracted 2 animal crackers, and gave her one while I clipped one hand and then the next as I finished the other. She sat there so well, I had to hold back the desire to give her another cookie for being a good girl.
See what I started?