We were just sitting down to dinner, a pasta concoction of some sort, and Sam had eaten a few bits of pasta and seemed primed to send a lot more down his gullet in short order when Ben said "After you finish, we can split a popsicle."
As far as Sam was concerned dinner was over. He got up, walked to the refrigerator, opened it up and said "want popsicle!" We refused saying that he needed to join us in eating dinner. He had a Samtrum and cried about his popsicle and refused to eat even another mouthful of dinner.
We refused to give him the popsicle. He tried to drag a chair over to the freezer so he could help himself. We stopped that nonsense especially when he damaged a picture in the process. Then Sam dumped his dinner in the dog's dish.
After dinner Ben took Sam outside to play in the sandbox while I worked out. Then we went through the bedtime routine with multiple requests for popsicles. No other food was requested or given.
In the morning the first thing he wanted was a popsicle.
Lessons learned
Sam: That mama and dada are really mean and won't give you the popsicle no matter how many times you ask and how nicely you ask. I don't think there was any connecting the dots that he doesn't get snacks unless he eats some of the nourishing stuff though.
Ben: Don't ever ever ever mention any sort of treat that you are not prepared to give him immediately. I'm very surprised that he wasn't already aware of this golden rule.
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1 comment:
Congratulations on hanging tough! I know it would have been easier to just give Sam the popsicle, but you did the right thing. Otherwise, how will Ben ever learn??
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