Bed Time Tactics

Soren has been working on his stalling techniques lately. And bedtime is the perfect time for practice....I'm hungry, I'm scared, I'm thirsty, You forgot to give me a kiss, open my door wider, I'm having scary thoughts...

We're pretty emphatic about bed time and while his stalls can usually squeak out an extra minute or two, they don't usually get him much more than that.

But I have to say that I'm hungry does kind of work on me. I mean, how can you turn down a hungry child? Never mind that he just finished dinner 30 minutes ago and said then that he was completely full. He says he's hungry now...what mother would deny her child food?

The thing is that it kind of got out of hand. I didn't want it to be a stall technique, so I'd let him eat a snack during his bedtime story. Or maybe even go to bed with a banana (don't tell the dentist, or the people who patrol blogs looking for mothers who send their kids to bed with choking hazards.)

So, this was the week for me to put my foot down. Harden my heart against any plaintive starvation waling.

I warned him. Very clearly. He didn't eat very much of his dinner. I told him that there would be no snacks at bed time. I told him!

Of course at bedtime (30 minutes later) he was famished. He pleaded. He begged. I ignored. And then he came out with his coup de grâce:

"Mom, I can't exist!"

Lack of existence not withstanding, he didn't get the banana.