I was just manipulated by my four year old.
We had a little bit of a struggle at bed time. Oh, there’s no use beating around the bush: it was bedtime and he refused to listen. Instead of putting on his pajamas and brushing his teeth, he was prone in the hallway whining incoherently in some foreign tongue that only four year-old boys can understand.
So, instead of reading him the Wonder Pets book he brought home from the library last week, I stepped over him and told him that it was a-ok by me if he slept in his clothes on the floor in the hallway. No skin off my teeth.
Five minutes later he crawled into my bed with his book in hand and tears in his big, brown eyes. When I asked him why he was crying he said, face down on the mattress, “I’m just sad for a minute. I wanted you to read to me.”
Good ol’ tug at the heartstrings.
So I gave in (I cave really easily) and told him to get in his pajamas and brush his teeth and I’d read the book. There was that brilliant smile back in a flash. Tears disappeared without a trace. Happily, he got in pajamas, brushed his teeth and then sang, “I’m rea-d-y.”
After the book, he closed his eyes with a big grin on his face.
Who won that one? Did I win because he finally did what I asked? Did he win because I caved and immediately gave in, reading him the book as soon as he showed signs of remorse and improved behavior?
I’m not sure how to keep score on that one. I think we both won. He eventually did what he was supposed to do and I didn’t have to yell. We got to read the book and both of us went to bed happier than we would have had he not come in batting his incredibly long lashes at me and acting contrite.
I think he learned a lesson. I just hope the lesson wasn’t “wait a minute, then act sad (tears will get you extra points) and mom will collapse like a house of cards and do exactly what you want her to do.”
