The Ribena Bargain

Gabe's not very good with his fluids so sometimes, I look for an excuse for good behaviour to give him water flavoured with Ribena. Of late, Gabe's performance at bath time has improved tremendously so I took that chance to insert the ribena into routine.

Today, I decided that his behaviour didn't justify the reward and skipped the drink after bath time. He noticed the absence and asked for it after lunch. I explained that ribena is only for good boys. and listed all the "not good" things he did today. His response? Well, he paused for a bit and then quietly said "I looked up".

The reply totally threw me off guard and I burst out laughing. You see, Gabe has this issue with water on his face, especially his eyes. So you can imagine the protest during bath time. We've been trying to get him to look up when we wash the shampoo off his hair and it took a loooooong time for him to overcome his fear and obey the instruction.

In short, I accepted his "defense speech" and gave him a full cup of the drink, diluted as usual, true to my parenting style.