Friday, July 11, 2008

Good negotiator or bribes???

Have you ever negotiated with your kids or bribe your kids to get what you want? Does it always work? Or does it seem to back fire?

We went this year to Kiddie Kandid to have the kids yearly photos taken. I wanted to have some cute photos with props, cute smiles and poses. This year the kids wanted to pose their way and would put up a fight to get what they wanted.

Ryan wanted to make all the funny faces and noises he can make. Lindsay wanted to put her hands and feet in a ballerina position. Both kids did not want to set next to each other. They would push and shove each other or knock down the curtain. Oh my...the crying. My kids can turn on and shut off the water works. I had to pull one kid off of the other and put them in time out. If they would have just smiled and do what we asked...we would have done. I was not happy they were acting this way. I told the photographer, "We are done." She said, "Lets keep trying." They didn't have another sitting for a while...lets try a few things.

My kids were brats. I do not like these behaviors. I did try to negotiate with them. They can do one picture of the pose or face they want. But then....they were smooth....if we can have some ice cream that would be nice.....sure, I did it and told them my terms. I took their breb. The were a little better, but still not the best only tollerable. Two hours later....we finally had six photos we liked. We have four pictures I liked and two pictures they wanted. During the previewing of the photos the kids decided to have a fight and start hitting each other.

I was angry with this behavior that they were doing. I told them we are done. They smiled and said good. Let's go get our ice cream over there. I said, "NO." The deal was to seat down, smile, and do as I ask all the way through the photos and viewing....until we walk out their doors. You just heard, "Yes, to the ice cream and missed out on how you can have ice cream." The look on their face was priceless. Neither negotation or breb worked. The kids cried all the way home.

Enjoy the photos. If you drag your mouse over the photos they will in large.

2 comments:

Amanda said...

I'm so sorry. I feel like most days are like this with my son. I try bribing & negotiating & most of the time neither works. What really sucks is you are the bad guy either way & both you & the kids miss out on whatever fun things you had planned or you (as a parent) have to sit through the whining & crying. Parenting is SOOO not the easiest job in the world.

Mad Queen said...

Real motherhood is surviving picture day... way to go momma!