Swwet Girl Bribe

I made a ham and vegetable frittata for dinner tonight. Champs and I finished eating pretty quickly, but Sweet Girl took a few minutes longer to eat dinner (that’s nothing new, actually).

Here's a SweetGirlism story about our dinner. I was at the store with Sweet Girl this evening and picking up some ham and hash browns. She asked what it was for and I said I was making a frittata.

"I don't like that!" she insisted (Note, she's never even heard the word). I told her that she would love it. "No! I don't like it!" again. I went on to explain that she loves all the ingredients I was using; broccoli, cheese, onions, etc. Nope, she still wasn't having it.

So I did something I never do.

I said, "OK, I'll make a deal with you. If you promise to eat all of your dinner with NO COMPLAINTS, then I will buy ice cream for dessert - and you can pick out the flavor." At this point, she nearly squealed with delight. "But", I said with grave sincerity, "if you complain even once, you won't get any ice cream for dessert. In fact, you won't get any ice cream out of the entire carton, no matter how long it takes Daddy to eat it."

Man, talk about round eyes! She counted the cost, agreed, and we proceeded to the ice cream aisle, where she picked out Eddy's Girl Scouts Thin Mints Limited Edition ice cream and accepted my challenge.

She just finished eating and I heard nothing but praises to her dinner since it came out of the oven (Champs and I told her it was getting a little thick when she declared it the best dinner she'd ever had). Yeah, I bribed my kid - something I rarely do - but I have to admit that it worked and it was pretty funny.


Here are some comments from this post:
Carmi said...
Bribery is always within the scope of parenthood when it results in a well-fed, healthy child. Good strategy on this one!
And I'm sure the ice cream tasted especially good. I've learned something tonight!

kenju said...
I see no problem with that at all! Whatever works, right?

Melissa said...
Too funny. Glad it worked. A frittata sounds really good. Actually, so does the ice cream.

margalit said...
Hey, same bribary, different dinner! I made beef stew tonight. My son (14) complained constantly about how he hates beef stew like it was going to poison him. I told him that if he ate some, he could have ice cream for dessert. After 3 bowls of beef stew, he had earned his ice cream!
Michele sent me.

Geekwif said...
Mmmmm. Frittata. Sounds yummy.
I love that she said it was the best dinner ever. Sounds just like your girl. :)

chase said...
A frittata... hmmm that sounds yummy. And yes a treat will always perk things up!