Bribing for Behaviour
I remember bribes for good behaviour for kids going back to the days of my youth, when I would get a sucker at the barber or at a pediatrician for good behaviour. In the days of my kids' youth, such things reached such a fever pitch that my kids would literally pick up a toy for almost any kind of kids’ activity they did. Now that my kids are reaching the age where Happy Meals no longer have the appeal to them that they once did, the influx of toys has dropped down significantly. But there was awhile there, when we were having some serious space issues in the house, because the kids would get toys every single week.
Personally I did not go for this activity, and my wife did. She was desperate for the kids to behave, particularly my Asperger's Syndrome son. My kids would give me the “but mommy does it” line, and that would just make me even more dedicated to the idea of no toys for good behaviour. Eventually my wife got tired of it too, and joined my ranks in the anti-“toy for good behaviour” brigade.
In today’s For Better or For Worse, Mike Patterson appears to have worn Elly Patterson down enough, where she is willing to bribe him to act nicely. The Pattersons rarely show any signs of disciplining the little hellion, so I can’t say that I am surprised that he has gotten them to this point.
Personally I did not go for this activity, and my wife did. She was desperate for the kids to behave, particularly my Asperger's Syndrome son. My kids would give me the “but mommy does it” line, and that would just make me even more dedicated to the idea of no toys for good behaviour. Eventually my wife got tired of it too, and joined my ranks in the anti-“toy for good behaviour” brigade.
In today’s For Better or For Worse, Mike Patterson appears to have worn Elly Patterson down enough, where she is willing to bribe him to act nicely. The Pattersons rarely show any signs of disciplining the little hellion, so I can’t say that I am surprised that he has gotten them to this point.
posted by howard at 10:15 PM
5 Comments:
I wonder what Michael thinks now that his own children are doing to him what he used to do with his parents. Does he see it as a natural part of childhood or a cruel joke?
dreadedcandiru2,
As near as I can tell from the Super-Teddy sequence, Mike is delighted they imitate him, and Deanna does the disciplining with no help from Mike. The only time Mike appears to be upset was when Meredith fed Robin dirt and convinced him it was chocolate. Even then you didn't see any consequence from it, so probably he did nothing other than glare at Meredith, while secretly being proud she is doing to Robin, what he once did to Elizabeth.
Hmmmm..... It does appear that Deanna will handle most of the discipline at that. I wonder if this means that twenty years from now, Meredith will do to her what she did to Mira: allow her to believe a lie out of spite.
I wonder if this means that twenty years from now, Meredith will do to her what she did to Mira: allow her to believe a lie out of spite.
Hmmmm…I don’t know. There is some indication like last Easter’s strip, where the Patterson family showed up at church for the first time in years, which would indicate that between Mike or Dee, one of them has some religious inclination. I would say Dee, given that mother Mira was the one with the long prayer over Christmas Dinner, but even there Deanna and Michael were both critical of her praying in their thought balloons. Meredith might think about something to spite her mother, but I am not sure it will be the same, “I’m pretending to live in sin, even though I am really not.” trick she pulled on her mother. I could see Mira caring about it; but I don’t see the same kind of reaction from Deanna.
On the other hand, at least Elizabeth Patterson doesn’t seem to have any problem with living with men before marriage, so long as she makes it ambiguous enough as whether she is doing anything with the man with whom she is living. The Patterson morality on the matters seems to be less than that of the Sobinski clan, so once again, I can’t see Meredith playing that particular trick,
You're right, of course. The Pattersons really don't much care about things like that in the least. It might, in fact, come as a greater shock to them that Liz and Anthony might have eloped than merely decided to co-habit. That seems to be what they expected Jim and Iris to do, at any rate.
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