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Why it is important to keep promises

Parenting
 Photo:Courtesy

I am always amazed at the ability that children possess to catch their parents in the act of lying. When you think you have averted a crisis (OK, a mother of a tantrum when you don't have the energy for it) by making a promise you don't intend to keep, it is the one time they remember what you said you would do. And it is the one time that they will keep reminding you of it over and over and over...

So I've learned to bite my tongue when one of the girls wake up in the middle of the night asking for something that has never existed or no longer exists. Like the other night, my almost-three-year-old daughter woke up asking for her pink hairband that has a bow with polka dots.

It was around 3am so I reassured her that we would find it in the morning.

Her crying didn't stop so I got out of bed, retrieved it from the floor next to the fridge (thank God for my photographic memory) and put it on her head. She patted her head looking for the polka-dotted bow, which was missing. She cried, "Mom! I want my hairband with a bow!" When a pre-schooler wakes up from a dream, it must turn to reality or else...

"Hush baby, don't cry, OK? We'll get you another hairband tomorrow."

The last time, it was an umbrella and she remembered.

I'm definitely here typing this and not on my way to the supermarket where I bought the hairband...so I'll have something to report next week on the tantrum my unfulfilled promise caused. And no, I don't spoil my daughter by giving her everything she wants...I just...yawn... love my sleep (especially at 3am).

 

 

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