Jacob's Strong Will

Several weeks ago Jacob had a big mess in the play room.  The rule at our house is that they have to clean up all their toys before they can eat dinner.  I asked Daniel and Catherine to help him clean it up, knowing he'd never be able to do it by himself.  So when the three came to the table, I told him to say "thank you" to his brother and sister for their help.  Jacob looked at me as if I were speaking in French, so I repeated it.  Again, he stared at me.  David then said something along the lines of, "You need to say thank you, and then you can have dinner."  Again - nothing.  So.......long story short......he didn't eat dinner that night.

The next day we went to HEB.  There they have these things for kids called Buddy Bucks.  You can get Buddy Bucks when you check out, and you can use them to win prizes.  I have bribed many a child with Buddy Bucks in exchange for good behavior at the grocery store.  On this day, we checked out, the woman handed us the Buddy Bucks, and I told Jacob to say thank you (just like we've done every other time we've been to the store).  He gave me a look, and I remembered that this child was making "a thing" out of saying thank you.  So I told him that if he didn't say thank you, he would not get the Buddy Bucks.  So.........long story short.............he didn't get the Buddy Bucks that day or the next time we went to the store or the time after that.

Last week we went to the doctor's office because Katie had strep.  The nurse let them each pick out a piece of candy from the bucket as we were leaving.  Katie picked hers, and then Jacob reached into the bowl.  As he put his grubby little fingers around a Snickers, he looked up at me with that look, and I reminded him to say thank you.  He slowly lowered the Snickers back into the bucket and walked away.  The will power continues to get stronger as the prizes get bigger......

Finally there was Halloween.......we now saw how big he could make this issue.  We reminded him before trick-or-treating that he would have to say thank you in exchange for candy.  We even gave him some other ideas instead of saying the words "thank you," including saying it in a tough football voice, saying it in Spanish, or even using the ASL sign for thank you.  He opted instead to only pick up candy at the houses that had put it on the front porch in a bowl for you to take on the honor system.  So every time we approached a new house, he'd ask, "Is there a person?"  If there was a person handing out candy, he wouldn't even go up to the door, but if it was just a bowl of candy, he'd go and pick one.  (He didn't have anyone to thank at those houses!)  Daniel and Catherine got 75-100 pieces of candy, and Jacob got 6.

How much will it take for him to learn this lesson???  He has a strong will.  Let's pray he uses it for good.