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TINY JUICE

Last night the almost 2-year-old didn’t finish his dinner, which, in our standard incentive system, not only meant no dessert, but more crucially, no more juice for the night. More water, fine, but no more juice. Putting on his pajamas, he got desperate. He bargained.

“Little juice?” he implored.

“No, I’m sorry sweetheart, you didn’t finish your dinner.”

“Tiny juice?” he begged.

That broke my defenses, and I smiled. Inducing a smile earns a reward.

“OK, you can have tiny juice,” I said.

All the way to the kitchen he shook his head and said, “No big juice? No big juice?” After he sucked down his tiny juice with beautiful contented concentration, he said, “More juice?” but to no avail.