Monday, August 01, 2005

No, wait. I was wrong.

It's not MOMMY'S HOUSE OF PAIN.

It's Daddy's House of Bribery!

Yes. I can hear you laughing out there. Ha ha. Very funny. You just wait, all of you who are so very certain that you will never, ever buy your child's cooperation. Your day is coming. And when it arrives, I won't laugh at you. Point and chuckle a little bit maybe, but laugh? No.

It's frightening how well it works.

Motivating a pre-teen (or 'Tween as they prefer to be called) is relatively easy. Find the one thing in all the world that it thinks it wants...

...then utilizing the well-know "carrot and stick" approach, lure the unsuspecting 'Tween into doing your bidding.

I am quite certain that somewhere a Psychologist feels terribly queasy, but doesn't know why.

There are consequences to this approach. The most notable one being that Daddy is going to have to pony up for all these goodies. And, because The Evil Mommy has washed her hands of the whole thing, Daddy will have to enforce the rules that he set up. Namely that Twinkle has to complete all of her PT every day, without griping at Mommy once. She can cry if it hurts (and it still does) she can complain the temperature of the room (she has), or the lack of suitable music on Radio Disney for her taste (don't even get me started). But she has to do the work.

Welcome to Daddy's House of Bribery. Where everything has a price, including Mommy's sanity!

1 comment:

Art Lad said...

Hi! Thanks for putting me on your list (I can read the name of my Web place so I saw it!)

Dad says the thing he sent you went to Mr. [name deleted] and he is going to mail it to you today or tomorrow. Hope your Twinkie likes it. Hope she feels better.

Bye!
Thomas
[as transcribed by his dad, MM, who could not get him to distinguish between the alias of your daughter and his favorite snack food]