Bribery

For Andrew's first six swimming lessons I basically told him that if he listened to his teacher and didn't scream, he could earn _________ (I let him decide each time). Nothing ever worked. At first I thought he was scared and I was a mean mom for letting him cry. Both are probably true. After two weeks though he wasn't scared anymore and was just mad that the coach wasn't letting him call the shots (one of the main reasons he and I are going to have a tough time when he is a teenager... or a 3-year-old :)) stubborn + more stubborn = ?? an unhappy house (and a mom who is a behavior specialist also acting like a 3-year-old?)

Anyways, long story short... today I told Andrew that if he listened to his coach and tried to stay quiet (instead of yelling, "I want to dive! I want to jump through the hoop! I want my mom!)... we could go to Fuddruckers afterwards for dinner and he could play games with Kevin.

After swimming lessons at 6pm (and 7.5 hours of driving earlier today) all Kevin and I wanted to do was go home and crash... so we were kinda hoping he didn't earn a trip to Fuddruckers (I still wanted the fries though...)... but low and behold, he actually had a good lesson! The only time he cried was after his lesson when he slammed his finger in the changing room door. Ouch! His coach was impressed. Must've been all that pool time he had with his Buskirk cousins that inspired him to want to focus on swimming!

So we lived it up at Fuddruckers tonight. :) After all, a mom's gotta be consistent and follow through with what she says, right?

Caitlin was ready to kill us for subjecting her to more driving in the car... that is... until we introduced her to water in a straw.

Swimming. Happy kids. Full tummies. Fudd Fries. It was a good night!