MoseleyWorld

Am I teaching my daughter the fine art of negotiation, ranging from successful sales pitches to a great con game?

About an hour after going to bed, Saxon yelled, “Daddy, Hey Daddy. Hey Daddy! I got poo poo in my diaper and wanna change it.” Although I was comfortably watching the Texas Rangers lose yet another ball game, I thought how incredibly uncomfortable it would be to sit in my own excrement - all night long.

So, I went upstairs, opened the door to Saxon’s room expecting to catch the faint (or strong) odor of “poo poo,” but the smell wasn’t in the air. After turning on a light, I took off Saxon’s wet, poo poo-less diaper, held it up showing Saxon and making a look of “what gives?”

Lying on her back, Saxon with both palms open and a surprised look on her face said, “No poo poo?” in a tone that certainly sounded quizzical.  Knowing the jig was up, Saxon started rattling off all the bedtime stall strategies, in rapid fire succession: “Wanna go downstairs…read-a-book…rock-a-minute…” After realizing it was going to be time to go back to bed, Saxon settled for the kiss-hug-cover me up combo. Night night sweet Saxon, my darling little con artist in training.

Saxon loves to negotiate. One of her first spoken phrases was “one more,” usually at bed time in the form of “read one more book.” A couple of months ago, Saxon cajoled her Yaya (my mom) into reading at least a dozen books, extending her bedtime into bonus rounds.

As I held out my hand with two gummi bear-like vitamins to Saxon and playfully asked how many she wanted, she responded, “mmmm, two, no five!” After giving her two, she kept repeating, “two more violins, two more violins.”

Saxon hearts water. I mean she really loves water. Swimming. Standing. Splashing. Pouring. Especially Pouring. I can barely go into the kitchen without Saxon zooming over to the refrigerator, tiny little playset cup in hand, to ask, “water? water, please? please water?” Because she doesn’t want to drink this water, just pour it from one container to another - usually on the coffee table or couch! - I typically say no. Apparently someone said, no to water, yes to ice, because now she quickly moves from water to ice.

We have tried hard to limit the amount of television, since most “experts” dissuade TV watching, especially for kids under 2. IMHO, they’re taking an extreme stance to try to prevent parents from using television as a 24/7 babysitter. I will openly admit, Saxon is an Elmo junkie. Sesame Street is about the only thing she’s allowed to watch.

At least 7 or 8 times a day, “watch elmo” comes out of her little mouth. If I reply with my usual “elmo’s sleeping,” Saxon then begins the negotiation ladder, uttering the following (in this order): watch street? watch ernie? watch big bird? watch elmo (again)? Most of the time, I remain steadfast and seek a diversionary game or toy. But sometimes I cave. My guess is that Saxon then makes a mental note, “Hmmm…watch Elmo didn’t work, but when I said ‘watch big bird’ the old guy finally turned on street.”

we took these fun photos at a garden party at the home of David Rolston, Dallas’ best landscape architect.

So, I guess maybe I am teaching Saxon to negotiate…but the whole con game, I haven’t a clue where she gets it.