Bargaining

Bad habits are hard to break. I'll be totally honest... there are times I hear the words I am saying to my kid, and I am not sure what is powering my brain. I don't love the idea of bargaining with my kid, yet I find myself doing it enough that I realize its not one of those things that happens and I think "oh, well I will give myself a break on this one... its not like I do it all the time". Its to the point that when I hear the word "If" creeping into the beginning of my sentences (as in "if you [insert verb] again, then [this thing you will not like] will happen", or "if you do [something I desperately need you to do right now], then this [really cool thing you will love] will happen"), I cringe at myself and wish I had the ability to reverse time by just a few seconds. And the reality is, I know I can say the same thing without sending a message that stuff I say is negotiable. Habits...

I'm working on it. I have a good reminder in the form of a 3 year old recording devise that painfully and accurately plays back my own words on a regular basis. But that's not bad enough... then he comes up with his own "If, then" scenarios that make sense to him, because, after all, mom says "If, then" stuff all the time.

Me: "I really, really love you, you know that?"

Z: "Thanks mom, but, well, IF you really love me, THEN you'll be nice and let me watch TV. Because that's nice."

There's still some stuff I can claim first-time mommyhood with, right?
Anyway, its not always that funny but I think since I'm more aware of it now, our communication will evolve a bit in the weeks to come. :)