Stall Tactics

Joey has figured out how to prolong the activities that he enjoys in order to avoid the things that he doesn't. For example, at bedtime he demands to have a bath. During said bath he must swim. After he swims we need to brush his teeth. Then use the potty. For using the potty he needs to have 2 M and Ms. Then it's back to teeth brushing. This is all to avoid the inevitable: going to bed.

When I sit to read him a book, I never choose the right book. So he needs to get out of the chair and pull ten thousand books off the shelf in search of (insert book title here). It is so interesting to me that at just 2 years young, this little person has figured out exactly how to get what he wants.

When I go in his room to cover him up before I go to bed he sometimes wakes up. I used to be able to sneak out after a sleepy "hi mommy," followed by a quick kiss. Now if he wakes up stands up immediately and announces that he needs milk. NEEDS MILK! MILK! MILK MOMMY! MILK! Because I can't stand the yelling and whining at 11:30pm, I always give in, drag my tired self back downstairs, fill a sippy cup and bring it back to my now wide-awake child. Last night he took many small sips and passed the cup back to me after each one. Every time I started to walk away he needed just one more sip. After this routine repeated itself several times over, I finally stopped the madness and proceeded into the hallway despite his protest.

Just as I think I'm going to finally get to go to bed, I hear Joey call for me once more. Another game has begun. He has announced that he needs to go potty. I throw my head back in utter exhaustion paired with a significant amount of frustration in being manipulated by a 2 year old. Well, given our current success with potty training thus far, I can't exactly ignore this final request. And boy does he know it. So I take him into the bathroom, remove his night time diaper (which I'm secretly rejoicing in the fact that it is still dry!), sit him on the potty, and wait.

At this point in my story I'm pretty sure you can guess what this oh-so-adorable child asked for next as we flushed the potty. Yep, chocolate. This is where I put my foot down. I may do a lot of things to avoid a tantrum, but this is not one of them. I refuse to reward this ridiculous display of "I'm not tired anymore, Mommy." with M and Ms at Midnight. So I sternly told Joey that we do not get chocolate in the night time. Only in the daytime. He protested at first, but soon realized I was done. Game over. Back to bed.

Stalling: He's become an expert already. I'm pretty sure the fun has just begun.