The Power Of A Good Bribe

*UPDATE*

Austin's home. He had a fabulous time. And the first thing that he said to me was, "where's my money?".

We headed out to Tom's parents' tonite for a belated birthday party for Tom with his family. Audrey had arranged earlier in the week for cousin Katy to spend the nite tonite after the party. All week long she's been asking "this today?" When she woke up this morning and found out that today was indeed "the day" she was ecstatic. We were all bundling up to head home after tonite's festivities when Austin received an impromptu invite to spend the nite at cousin Anna's. He readily accepted and Anna being so excited she was having a sleepover began to expound on all of the great things they would do. And then she mentioned about how to go downstairs during the nite if he had to go to the bathroom. How it would be dark but he could use a flashlight. And then his smile began to fade.

Suddenly he didn't want to spend the nite. He wanted to go home to sleep "in his own bed". Anna started bawling, big alligator tears rolling down her cheeks. She started listing all of the "cool" things they could do:

• we can get out George (the hamster)
• my mom will make us root beer floats
• you get to go to my basketball game tomorrow
• we can leave the lights on

Nothing could convince him to change his mind. He was determined to go home and since we were taking Katy we didn't have enough room in our van to bring Anna along, too. It looked as if Anna was going to be heading home alone with a broken heart. I was encouraging him to go. As his mom I wasn't brushing aside his fears, I just knew they were completely unfounded; and he was just being stubborn. He's spent the nite away from home lots of times before. There would really be no reason that he would have to go downstairs in "the dark" by himself. He would be sleeping with Anna in her room, not secluded off by himself somewhere. So I did what any rational mom would do. I leaned in close and whispered in his ear, "I'll pay you $5 when you get home tomorrow." *Sniff* "ok". And he was off. Crisis solved. Good nite, Jamers, I'll see you in the morning!