Tuesday, February 9, 2010

she's learning....

So, when Gennie came home from school I told her it was time for them to clean up the downstairs from the superbowl party. Josiah got up from his nap and they went down to attack the mountain of toys covering the floor. I could hear them arguing and Gennie screaming at her brother, "Jo, you have to pick up the toys, too!! It's not just my mess!!" This went on for quite a while and though I thought about going down to demand cooperation and yell at Josiah, I decided to wait. We've been trying to get them to sort out their disagreements themselves lately, based in no small part on the fact that I'm so done with the tattling . . . and I've heard it just gets worse and worse until about the 3rd grade.

Finally the arguing settled down and I didn't hear from them for a while. They came back upstairs and Gennie announced that the job was done, then said, "Excuse me, I have to go get something for Jo." She came back in a minute with a dollar bill in her hands. Handing it to him she said, "Here you go. You picked up all those toys so you get the dollar." She explained that she had to promise to give him a dollar so that he'd stop playing and help her pick up. I said, "Oh, well that's very enterprising of you!" and had to leave the room, I was laughing so hard!

I guess mastering the bribe can start at any age. Now just where did she get that dollar?

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