Carrot and Another Carrot

M. Edium was especially helpful and obedient yesterday, to the point where my wife and I thought he had earned a special reward. So we went to the toy store to pick up a WALL-E action figure or two. Problem was, when we got there, the selection was pretty picked over. The only thing still there that interested him was a set of four robot figures, at a price well beyond what we'd budgeted for this treat.

So I offered him a deal: he could choose two of the toys to have now, and two at a later date, provided he was this good again some other day. I wasn't sure he would understand, but he jumped at the deal. I was impressed at his maturity.

Then we got home with the two toys of his choice, and he asked if he could switch them with the two still in the box. Which wasn't part of the deal.

"Are you trying to scam me?" I asked him.

"Yes," he smiled. Points for honesty, as always.

I don't know why I was so impressed with his choice earlier. What else was he going to say, "No, Dad, I insist on zero toys now"? Where was the percentage in that? Better to take the current offer and hope to sweeten it later. In, like, ten minutes.

But on the other hand, I'm sure it's nice for him to know he's got two little toy robots high in a closet, just waiting for him to do something awesome. And it's nice for me to know that the chances of something awesome getting done by him sometime very soon just went up.

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Carrot and Another Carrot

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