Finding Joy in Snarkville

As naptime rolled around yesterday I was patting myself on the back and praising the fact that I’m a good mother and my son is a good son who makes choices and promptly laid down for his nap at 11:30am and was sound asleep shortly thereafter.

Then he woke up and I was slapped back into the reality that my near perfect morning was the exception that this child who was NOT the same one I put to bed for a nap is the reality.

This other son of mine woke up with a keen concept of negotiation.  In fact EVERY thing was a deal for the rest of the day.  We made deals for the grocery store, we made deals for dinner, we made deals for him to ride in cars, finally it was bedtime and (at least in my mind) the deals were over.

Me: It is time to go to bed. Let’s get our PJs on.

Him: I want to watch just ONE Thomas and then go to bed.

Me: Um, no, PJs then bed.

Him: PJammers, Thomas, THEN bed?

We finally get to bed (without the demanded requested Thomas)

Him: I want to watch Thomas.

Me: Honey, I have an idea.  (since he was rubbing his eyes and nearly drifting off in my arms)  Why don’t you lay down and close your eyes and be REALLY still and quiet for 10 minutes, I’ll come and check on you in 10 minutes and if you are still awake, I’ll see what I can do about Thomas.  BUT if I hear anything, you lose this deal, ok?

Him: Ok.

(He couldn’t climb over me and tuck himself into bed fast enough. Whew, I think.)

Less than a minute later, I hear playing in his room.

5 minutes later.

Him (running down the hall with his blanket): Mama, I coming.  I ready for Thomas now.

Me: Ahem, no.  You’ve been playing and I asked you to lay down and be really quiet with your eyes closed.

Him: I want eyes open and Thomas.

Me: Go back to bed.

Ahem, I’m slowly losing what is left of my mind.  Duke it seems comes from the “repeat your request until you wear them down” school of negotiation.  I come from the “say it one more time and I’ll be serving gruel and you’ll LIKE it” school.  We have come to an impass.

As with all impasses, we bring in the outside mediator, in my case, I’m pretty sure he isn’t imparital.

Prince (goes into the child’s room and sits down): Ok, I have a deal for you.  If you lay down now and go to sleep, when you wake up tomorrow, you can stay awake ALL day until you have to go to sleep tomorrow night, deal?

Him: Ok, Daddy.

We have achieved sleep!!

This entry was posted on Monday, May 14th, 2007 at 8:42 am and is filed under This Child of Mine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.