Toddler bribery

I stayed with my godmonster goddaughter last night while Kerry took Felton to Little Gym. Sydney isn't really a monster, but she often acts like she thinks I am one.

Despite Kerry's attempts at preparing her for being left alone with me, once she caught on her face turned down and she began to wail. She continued for several minutes after Kerry left and I wasn't sure what to do, but my course of action must've been genius because it instantly silenced the child.

After reading one of her books to myself (I could barely hear myself over her pitiful weeping) I ignored her for a minute and walked over to the couch to find the remote. I found Monsters Inc. on the DVR playlist, turned around and said, "I'm going to watch Monsters Inc. Do you wanna watch with me?" She replied with a choked sob, "yeah." So I called her over, brought her favorite blanket along with her milk, and she didn't make a peep for a long while.

Thankfully the next sound she made was giddy laughter. I loved when at the end of the movie, as Boo was beating up Randall and I yelled, "Get 'im Boo!" Sydney repeated my cheers. It was too cute.

Here she is in a much happier mood than when I arrived:


After the movie was over, Sydney wanted nothing more than to watch more television and continuously apply my chapstick to her tiny lips. So I bribed her again by telling her that if she let me get her ready for bed she could wait up for mom. Although Kerry wasn't due back much later than Sydney's normal bed time, I'm sure she would've preferred that Sydney was in bed on time, but I really didn't want to suffer through another bout of crying. It honestly breaks my heart to see her upset, so the bribes served both of us in my opinion.

Aren't babysitters allowed to fudge on the rules a little bit every now and again?