The scene: our kitchen table at dinner. S has a plate of food in front of him. He's hungry, but being stubborn because there is so many better things to be doing than eating dinner right now.
Me: S, eat your dinner.
S: No! (3-year-old's favorite word, whether they mean it or not)
Me: Eat your peas and you can have a cookie.
S: (thinking really hard about that deal and separating a pile of peas from the pile) I'll eat this many peas and get a cookie.
Me: OK, eat all your peas and some noodles and you can have two cookies.
S: Thinks really hard, then starts eating his peas. Gets through the first 'approved' pile, announces he gets a cookie.
Me: Here's a cookie, but eat the rest of your peas and some noodles and you can have another cookie.
S: (eats the rest of his dinner) All done, I get another cookie.
Later that night, as I'm working on the laptop, S comes upstairs to play with the nerf football. At one point, the balls goes to the other end of the room, I get on my hands/knees to get it.
S: OK! You be the horse, I'll be.... me!
The lesson: Negotiating with a 3-year-old can be challenging and oatmeal-raisin cookies are like money to a kid, but 'being the horse' is a job only a dad would take.
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