jedi mind tricking

it was the mission of the husband (and shame on me, the mom, who needs to be more supportive) yesterday to get sweet cheeks to eat her lunch before we left for her back-to-back birthday parties. the stubborn little thing that she is was not having it. i was avoiding the situation and left watching the clock, knowing the last minute we could leave the house without being more than 5 minutes late to the first party (both the husband and i are pretty prompt people). finally, after many tears, i had to put sweet cheeks in the car with her ½ sandwich, telling her she had to finish it on the way.

i knew i had to motivate her to eat because i told her daddy i would. can’t go back once the rule has been set in place. so what could i use for leverage? i couldn’t tell her she wasn’t going to the party because we already rsvp’d. i wasn’t going to be rude and just not show since my 4 yo can’t eat a decent meal without her parents begging. i looked around the car and quickly said to her:

“give me your purse.”

if you know sweet cheeks, you know how important her purses are to her. these lip gloss filled prized possessions go everywhere with her. fortunately for me she complied first, then asked the question:

“why?”

i replied with my harshest tone (it is pretty pathetic really):

“i am taking your purse away until you finish your lunch. you will not get your purse back until i see that sandwich is gone.”

the tears and the screams came on fast. she cried quite a bit. then the tears stopped and i had a sweet moment of silence before she emphatically yelled at me:

“give me back my purse. i will not eat any of my lunch until you give me that purse back.”

she gave it a moment, then yelled:

“now, when do you want to give me that purse back?”

i could not believe it. sweet cheeks turned the whole thing around on me, and was now trying to blackmail me into giving her the purse back. seriously.

the husband and i are in for it with this one.