Bribery and Before and After

I am certain that at some point in my adult life, I believed that bribery was the lowest form of parenting a person could stoop too. Well, now I know better!

We went to Fun Spot Park today--Jackson, Callahan and I took Darren along. In June, if you bring an A/B report card you get in free. (Quite a savings at $16 per kid!) Have to side note here that they even acknowledged Callahan's Nursery School Report, which made him feel like a big boy and totally shocked me! Seriously, the staff at the park is fabulous. It's a clean, neat small amusement park and zoo definitely worth the drive for a day trip...

Ok, back the the bribery.

Jackson was very excited to be back at the park this season. He immediately wanted to go to the arcade to "play games" which meant he really wanted to check out he loot in the "store" where they exchange awarded game tickets for trinkets. Anyway, we rode a couple of rides then stopped at the gift shop for a camera. [His speech therapist suggested using actually photos to help him with some of his verbal skills, so I'm trying to document more this summer]. Of course, while we're in the gift shop, all the boys have to get something. For Jackson it was "Lumpy" from the My Friends Tigger & Pooh series. He also wanted Pooh, Tigger, and Eyore, but mom's not made of money.

Not having Pooh really upset him; while Cal & Darren waited to ride the Zyclone (roller coaster) Jackson sat on a side bench and was very "stimmy" [talking to himself, flapping a bit, not out of control, but definitely not happy]. Well, after waiting 5 minutes, Cal is turned away and devastated because he is not tall enough to ride; meanwhile, Jackson is tall enough but refuses to step foot on the coaster...
Jackson continues to badger me all morning long about the Pooh, though he sorts himself out enough to have fun. Even after lunch and our visit to the zoo, he was still on the "Pooh" kick. As we headed toward a ride he said, "you go over there after this." At first I didn't get it, but then I realized he was trying to communicate another way that he wanted to buy Pooh. (Instead of saying, "we'll get you Pooh next time" or "Ride the swings, swim, get Pooh"). Honestly, it gets so annoying repeatedly telling him no. Which isn't just "no" by the way, I have to say, "no, we are not getting you Pooh today" because if I don't he'll repeat his statement literally 100 times until I respond like he expects me to... Cal does the same kind of thing, but he'll stop pestering after a while, not Jax, he'll formulate 10 ways to "ask" for it. [Does this kid know the power of words, or what?]

Soooo....I was just sick of how "Pooh" was dominating our day and I decided to put an END to the whole subject. I said, "Jackson, if you ride the blue roller coaster I'll get you Pooh" thinking there is no way he'll ride the coaster and we can get on with the day...but damn if he didn't walk right up to the line for the Zyclone and wait his turn with Darren.

Unfortunately, the Zyclone broke down before they could get on.

This was a real moment of angst for me: how could I get him to wait? They said it would be 30 minutes, so I distracted him with a few other rides; extending his wait for the coveted Pooh even longer. We fiddled around here and there and finally ended up waiting in front of the coaster an additional 20 minutes for Jackson and Darren to ride.

And then my son plopped himself into the cart and away they went. For another fleeing moment autism vanished and there was my son riding a roller coaster, smiling, laughing and screaming with Darren.

Then he got off and we bought Pooh.

So, the point of the post? The power of bribery. Before bribing Jackson with Pooh, he wouldn't have set a foot on that coaster, he'd sit and wait patiently for others to ride it, but there was no way he was getting on. He wanted Pooh bad enough to "step right up" and he even waited over an hour to do so! :-)

Have to share a quick Cal note...

Cal rode the water slide for the first time today. I convinced him it was the same as Splash Universe and he hesitantly (with a life jacket) made his way up, then down the slide. On our third ascent (though I couldn't ride with him, I had to walk him up each time) as he was waiting his turn, he said to me, "When I was four, I was such an idiot. This is so much fun! Dad was right, I should have tried to slide when I was four". Gotta love the "normal" child!!!