Positive Reinforcement

Have I mentioned before that I have no shame in using bribery as a parenting technique? Oh sure, before I had Joshua I had those idealistic theories about how it was going to go. But let's be honest, how many of those actually hold true when you get into the nitty gritty of toddlerhood? One thing I've learned for sure is that if you catch your kids doing something right, it sure is a lot more fun to reward that than to constantly focus on the negative. Sure, we do plenty of that. Say "steps" in our house and you get nearly immediate compliance from Joshua. He's spent many a minute there being punished for disobedience. But I'm also realizing that the positive reinforcement (some may choose to call it bribery) goes a long way.

So, yesterday was a pretty good day...when you look at it on the whole. There were no full scale temper tantrums. No tears when we left the playground with Brooke. No screaming or kicking when Joshua and Jason came in for supper. There were a few "no" spells, which I don't prefer, but he's 2. "No" is the most common word spoken by 2 year old small people, at least I've heard so from parents of such munchkins. We work on it, but the fact that it didn't lead to all out hysterics or step sitting was a major victory. Joshua played nicely with Brooke. He helped me to pick up his toys. He ate his lunch without a fight, and ate a pretty stinking good dinner with a little help and encouragement from us. In my mind, all of that added up to warranting a treat.

So off to Rita's we went. All the way there we talked about why he had earned a special treat that day. He could repeat back to me that he had been a good boy. He had helped Mommy. He took a good nap. He ate a good lunch. Etc. He got it. Which made the smile on his face as he enjoyed 3/4 of his grape ice from Rita's all the sweeter for me.

It may also have helped that I had a very yummy lemon Misto shake that made me and the baby quite happy. This little munchkin that I carry around with me appreciated my choice of reward too. Glad I could oblige.

So maybe that's why, at 8:15 this morning, Joshua still looked like THIS! He was hoping for another trip to Rita's. And if he wants to sleep that well, I'll gladly take him as often as he likes.