Promises, promises

We are all full of promises.  Face it, we all say, "I promise..."  I try to never say those words, unless I am certain, beyond all, that I will follow through.  There is nothing worse than a broken promise.

Mayhem is in this, I Promise ---, phase, and he says he promises everything.  "I promise I won't steal your phone.  I promise I won't feed the dog my dinner.  I promise I will stay in bed next time!  I promise I didn't let the dog outside."  I promise, I promise, I promise.  Obviously, most of his three year old promises get broken, so I have been working on him understanding the concept of a promise.  I constantly preach to him, "Do not say you promise, if you aren't going to really try to do it."  I feel like I talk until I'm blue in the face over this, and he doesn't get it.

Tonight, as I am trying to put him to bed, and beginning our nightly ritual of whether he will stay in bed, go potty, need a drink, wake his sister up, etc, I asked him to promise he would stay in bed.  Normally, he does everything he can to get out of bed, including get a glass of water and dump it on himself, then cry that he is wet and made a mess.  Yes, this is very frustrating and gets on my nerves, and it goes on EVERY night.  Anyway, I asked him if he promised to stay in bed.  His response?  "Nope,"  I pleaded with him to promise to stay in bed, and he says, "I cannot promise something that I'm obviously not going to do!"

Gee, I guess he is hearing me after all...