Sleep bribery and the Target trip

Yes, we are still bribing the girls to sleep independently (which basically means without Mommy or Daddy.) The girls are doing really well. Allie and Anna stay in their beds all night almost 100% of the time. On average, Em comes running into our bedroom once a night. I always pick her up, hug her, remind her that she is doing a great job and place her back in her bed. And she usually stays. As soon as she sees light outside though, she's back.

The bribery portion of the formula is where we are having some issues. Rich and I don't want to have spoiled kids but, in a way, I don't mind spoiling them a little bit. These are my only babies. And I like sleeping in my own bed. So is there a fine line between rewarding and spoiling or a bold line?

The weekly prize a few weeks ago consisted of sunglasses and cases. The girls had picked them out of a TCP flyer and I had a coupon. I thought it was a win-win situation because they kind of did need bigger size sunglasses. Unfortunately, I think that not being able to play or do much of anything outside right now kind of ruined the whole thing. And then Em started up with, "But I want a toy."

You look fabulous, dahling!

Last weekend (not this past weekend but the weekend before) I had picked up some Beauty and the Beast stuff (some of it on sale!) because Em would not stop talking about the items that she needed to complete her Belle set. Allie and Anna are definitely more laid back about the whole prize thing. Em thinks about what she wants and then asks about it constantly.

These are the nice pictures. There was fighting.

I think part of the issue is that they have been stuck inside for a very long, very cold winter. Their birthday is in a month (more presents!) and at that point, it should be warm enough to play outside. I am hoping that they will start to forget about sleep prizes at that point.

And I fully admit to poor parenting by not setting strong rules from the get-go regarding prizes. By allowing them to pick out a prize at Target that first week, they had it set in their minds that this was how prizes were going to be determined. And I'm really enjoying sleeping in my own bed so I may have been a bit too lax with the rules.

Okay, so let's get to the Target trip. Now, I'll preface this by stating that the girls (especially Emily) have been waking up way too early in the morning. Rich and I started pushing the bedtime routine earlier starting Saturday night. Because of Saturday. Em fell asleep about two minutes into our drive to Target.

We decided to use two regular shopping carts in the store in case we split up. Our first stop was the $1 area, where I spotted Easter gloves. The girls all said that they wanted a pair and in the craze of everyone grabbing, I didn't realize that there were different sizes. Oooops.

Rich pointed out that the girls had their prize. Em's response was, "Then I want to pick out two things." Allie joined in.

You have to walk by the check out lines to get to the main part of the store and as we did so, we spotted a couple waiting in line with two infants in a double stroller. As we walked behind them, I heard the woman in front of them in line loudly exclaim, "Oh, so you had the egg that split!" Rich and I gave each other a smile. Been there, done that.

It is impossible for us to go anywhere without people looking at us. For the first part of the trip, Allie was sitting in one of the shopping carts. Strangers would spot her wearing her adorable cowgirl hat and then see the other girls and smile. I heard a few mutters of "how cute." Just a reminder that Em was wearing the princess dress over Christmas pajamas.

Em kept asking to pick out a princess toy. Over and over. And over. And I was going to let them all pick out a toy. I'm too soft and I was going to spoil them. I fully admit to that. The prize for that week had been a tin of Minnie Mouse colored pencils. And while the girls enjoyed writing and drawing with them, I was reminded over and over that it wasn't a toy.

In the middle of the shopping excursion, Em announced that her tummy hurt and she had to go potty. Pee, not poo. I asked her if she could hold it and she said yes. She's been doing this I have to go potty thing when she really doesn't need to go. We were almost done shopping when she announced that she REALLY had to go potty. I pulled the princess dress off of her, threw it in the shopping cart and brought her to the bathroom. And just as I suspected (as I was breaking my back to hold her over the toilet because she's so small she could easily fall in the toilet) she did not have to go.

After leaving the bathroom, we met Rich, Allie and Anna on their way to the check-out line. At that moment, Em realized that she wasn't going to be able to pick out a princess toy. And she started crying. Not temper tantrum crying. Just crying like she was hurt. Or crying like she had lost something.

So now we are in the check-out line with identical triplets so people are staring and I'm holding a crying kid, who is wearing Christmas pajamas with fuzzy pink boots. People are staring. Some poeple tried not to stare. They tried. The cashier even asked Rich if Em was okay. I felt bad. I could tell that she was overtired. I felt really bad. Luckily, Allie and Anna got over it. Em did not.

She cried for a long time over not being able to pick out a toy. And I felt bad.

Being a parent is tough.

And no one is allowed to wear pajamas to the store again.