Remember before you were a mom? Just barely? Me too - but remember when you would see some scenario played out between a parent and child and think to yourself, “Oh, I will never do that…” then you become a parent and ohhhh how things change. Here’s my big one recently - gum. My daughter (2-1/2yrs old) is addicted to chewing gum. Mind you I do my best to keep it to one piece per day.

Perhaps the saddest part of her addiction is how I work it to my advantage. How I hold out on giving her a fix all day, until that moment, I know she wants it, I know we have to leave the playdate - or the park - or the place that we’re at that she doesn’t want to leave. That’s when I bust out my toddler crack, “Honey if you leave nicely, there might be a piece of gum I could reward you with.” how quickly that quivering lip, and those puppy dog eyes (just about to well up with tears) turns into a sweet little angel voice saying, “Ok Mama, I’ll go nicely.”

This is where on-lookers (mainly of the non-parent persuasion) shake their heads in disapproval. A mother, bribing her child with candy, for shame! Oh and the best part - them envisioning what a ‘good’ parent might do, let me just humbly say, YOU HAVE NO IDEA!!! Toddlers don’t have a good sense of time, they don’t understand why they can’t live with their friends 24/7 and they don’t magically do something they don’t want to do, just because you do X, Y or Z.

But… they do manipulate, they are smart little stinkers and mine is no exception. So there is a certain point where I wonder, is she just playing me? I’m sure she knows I’m lugging around a pack in my purse. I’m sure she knows that it’s the fifteenth time I’ve said, “Well honey you’ve got one more minute but then it’s really time to leave.” and I’m quite certain she knows that Mama doesn’t want drama. This is the kind of topic they (the toddlers) discuss at those midnight workshops that they sneak out to, ‘100 Ways to Turn Your Parent into a Vending Machine’

Now really, one piece of gum is not a big deal. It’s a bit of sugar but is fresh breath such a terrible thing? Thus I say to gum makers, Thank You. Really, I’ve made it seem, in my daughter’s eyes like it’s the holy grail of treats and this makes life so much easier.