Earlier this year I switched my son from a crib to a toddler bed and enjoyed three solids months of him not realizing he could leave. He’s figured it out, now. Every night I go through the same bedtime routine: books, toothbrushing, potty and an original story I tell him as I sit or lay next to him in his little bed. Then, depending on whether he napped that day, he gets out of bed and runs into my room anywhere from one to ten times. He doesn’t protest when I carry him back, as long as I carry him back. I tuck him back in, return to my room and wait to hear the inevitable footsteps as he comes back, wordless, and climbs into bed next to me.
Last week, I tried something: I offered him ten pennies to stay in his bed all night. I went into my bedroom and waited. He called out for me a couple of times?to put his books away, to move something in his room. But he did stay. The next morning, I counted out ten battered-looking pennies from my bedside drawer and he put them in his rapidly filling octopus bank. Then I asked him if he wanted to earn ten pennies again that night.
“No,” he said, without a second’s thought.
I was a bit taken aback; it had worked so well the night before. Why wouldn’t he want ten more pennies"
I puzzled over it as we spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening together. We went to the mall and rode the see-through elevator at the mall (“This is so cool!”). We shared a pretzel and I remembered ...