Please can you stay quiet while I’m on this call? If you play nicely for five minutes, I’ll give you a biscuit.? An hour later, the phone rings again. ?Waaaah. Want two biscuits!? We’ve all been there. The child is gaining power and we parents are just losing it.
As the mother to two small boys, I have come to feel that bribery is the curse of my generation. Mealtimes with some friends are like the third world war, so much subterfuge is expended on getting the little blighters to eat. Children are routinely promised ice-cream if they finish their meal. Some get it even if they have pushed half the food on to the floor. In a few years, I fear that some of my friends will be like the American father at the end of our street, who has given his son a Nintendo DS for scoring two goals in football. The boy is 7. What will it be by the time he’s 10?
