Procrastinet

THE CON IS ON!

filed under: Dadditudes

Let it never be said that our little guy can't scheme with the best of them.

Last week, we saw an electronic drum machine in the window of the Rite Aid. Max is a drum freak, so he fell instantly in love with it. I thought it was pricey enough at $25 to be used as leverage for some good behavior, so I told him that if he behaved himself for FIVE DAYS IN A ROW, with no major punishments, he could have it.

This allowed some parental judgment on whether his misbehaviors were misdemeanors or felonies - only felonies (after a "final warning") would wipe out his progress towards the drums.

Lisa set up a "Behavior Chart" to keep track, and logged good days with smiley faces. Offenses (Grabbing of Toys in the 3rd Degree, Impatience in the 4th Degree) which were bad enough to get a stern talking to but didn't violate the final warning were shown via smaller, less smiley smiley faces. He cobbled together four marginally good days, then slipped farther on the fifth:

In Lisa's judgment, that fifth day was bad enough not to count towards the five, but not so bad that it had to reset the whole venture. So she added an additional day to the chart.

She came in the next day and found, to her surprise, that the day had already been filled in:

That's right. My boy snuck in and forged a smiley face.

Interestingly, it's the first time we've ever gotten him to draw anything even vaguely recognizable. I guess he just needed the proper motivation...

Posted by rjt at October 5, 2007 12:49 PM