Baby brainwashing: Coersion by toy

Allison and I immensely enjoy raising a headstrong, yet absolutely adorable toddler. She repeats everything we say (the good things as well as the bad things), her favorite word is no, she says please and thank you fairly consistently, she loves anything associated with princesses (I think we've seen Enchanted about 50 times), and she is very opinionated. So opinionated in fact that if her point of view doesn't match ours she will refuse to do what we want and possibly throw at tantrum. This problem vexed us for a while until we discovered a loophole. Emily will do anything that her toys tell her to do. Don't get me wrong, she isn't hearing voices except for the silly voices that we make up for her toys. When one of her toys tells her what to do she gets all excited and does it. Perfect example: it's 7:30 and time for Emily's bath. We tell her it's bath time but she says no and ignores us. I go into the bathroom and say in a goofy voice that is supposed to be her octopus toy, "Emily, don't you want to come take a bath with me?" Emily comes running and laughing to the bathtub, trying to pull her clothes off to get in the tub as quick as she can. So far her rocking horse has told her stories, Elmo and rubber duckies have conversations with her in the bath, and "baby Lila", her doll, convinces her to take a nap. I'm not sure how long it will last but we are loving the influence her toys have over her.

Comments

Jenna said…
Awesome! Love that you can get Emily do things by talking through her toys. I'll have to try that one day.
EmmaLee said…
You gotta love loopholes. I think that she is totally adorable and sweet. I guess I just haven't had a good opportunity to see her be a bit rebellious.
M said…
Way to go! That is some very clever parenting ;D Keep posting what works and I'll have to try it when Lira gets older!!

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