Monday, March 3, 2008

It All Makes Sense

I've heard people often state that many holidays are commercially driven (i.e. Easter with the Bunny and Christmas with Santa) and there is certainly truth behind the claim. Recently, it occurred to me that the various holidays have a whole new motivation: bribing your kid to BEHAVE! :) Take a look...

Sept. 23

Mommy says, "Sydney, if you don't behave you won't go trick or treating."

Nov. 15

Mommy says, "Sydney, if you don't behave Santa will skip our house."

Jan. 31

Mommy says, "Sydney, if you don't behave there will be no Valentine making."

March 3

Mommy says, "Sydney, if you don't behave the Easter Bunny will hop right by us."

So on and so on. Now, it all makes sense to me and I have a whole new appreciation for the holidays! :)

Just in case you were wondering what holiday is next...Syd's birthday! :) She is DYING to get chewing gum on her third birthday. We had no idea when it was safe for her to chew gum and so we randomly told her she could on her third b-day. Unfortunately for us, she has never forgotten it! Any thoughts on that? Three should be okay right?

Hope you are having a great day!

10 comments:

Woli said...

LOL - Thank you for the update!

The Hall Family said...

That's funny. I've never thought of holidays that way before!

As far as the gum goes, I think it depends on the child. Caleb (who will be three in September) just started chewing gum and does alright with it. We tried a little earlier, but as soon as he treated it like any other candy and swallowed it, we realized he was too young.

I think it gets harder and harder to hold off on giving gum the more kids you have. Erin didn't have gum for a while, and here we are giving gum to Caleb already! I'm sure Sydney will be fine. Have fun celebrating 3 years with her, the years fly by!

Laura said...

Three was the magic number for us...although I carefully followed our son around so that I would know where the gum ended up. It was usually never in the garbage.

Rach said...

You are SO right about the holidays! LOL :o)

As for the gum, I only ever had *really* strongly mint flavored gum and Hannah didn't much care for the "burn", so, not much in the way of "gummy" in our house. Three was about the age we started it and Syd should be fine. :o)

Courtney said...

We bribed Taylor with chewing gum to potty train her at 2. She was fine and didn't really like it anyway, but it got her potty trained. She was fine.

tiburon said...

Okay that is pretty darn funny! Three is a fine age - but I agree it depends on the kids. Lulu won't be three until July and she has been chewing gum for quite a while now. I think she just got it - having older kids to mimic.

Ruhiyyih Rose said...

I was pretty fascinated with gum. There was a rule though - "I don't want to hear it, smell, taste it, feel it, or see it".

I think it ended up in my brothers hair. :)

Happy Tuesday!

Unknown said...

santa kept maya on pretty good behavior here, too! :)

um. never thought about the gum thing. mason ingests at least one piece per day. hope he's not all gooey inside.

Bonita said...

Ruhiyyih was right. Our children's gum was usually deposited in the worst places depending on the mood of the moment. If they were mad, it could be thrown, or tamped down in someone's hair. We even had gum rationing, and then the worst - they stuck it under the boards under their beds, to reuse the next day. Mom was no shining example - I loved Bubblishous, Strawberry. A friend gave me an entire box for a festive event. When I got a few cavities, that was the end of that. No more gum, and I advocate chewing it only if it leads to a good story. Otherwise, it is not a good habit, and I'd do like Rach did...give Black Jack or Mint, anything to create a negative effect. :)

Christie said...

How did I miss this post? And it is so freakin' funny and true too! I think you've found the key to the holidays.