I took my toddler to a fast food restaurant recently. Every time we go there, she asks for a drink. And every time, I turn her down due to the price and since she never drinks much of the drink. Well, that day I said “yes.” I thought this would be relatively simple. I told her the choices of pink lemonade, fruit punch, sprite or root beer. She asked for pink lemonade. I filled her cup part-way. She tried it and said it was “too sour.” I poured it out. I asked her what she wanted. She said, ”lemonade.” I told her she had just tried it and said it was sour.
At this point, I noticed an older gentleman waiting to get his drink. I could imagine him thinking that in his generation, the Mom just gave the kid a drink and the kid drank it. I tried to move out of the gentleman’s way by moving to the side, but I never quite got out of his way. My daughter was taste-testing and patience-testing for me, while the line quickly formed behind us. So I said, “How ‘bout fruit punch?” I filled the cup again and was rejected again. I mentioned root beer and sprite but she wanted pink lemonade. I quickly relayed she said it was “sour” before, but she was insistent as toddlers can be. Lesson 1: Reasoning with a young child rarely works.
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So, as an “understanding” mother, I poured the pink lemonade again. My toddler rejected it yet again. But I wasn’t giving up. I offered to add sprite to the lemonade—which I did. She tried it and didn’t like it. I was beginning to feel guilty about all the soda I was wasting, so I poured the mixture into my own cup. “What do you want to drink?” “Fruit punch,” she said. “But you tried it and didn’t like it.” Anyone experiencing déjà vu? I poured the fruit punch yet again, bracing myself for her response. Lesson 2: No more toddlers choosing fountain drinks.
My daughter tried the fruit punch. Drum roll please…she liked it. I quickly filled her cup with fruit punch and got out of the long line. We took our food and carefully selected drinks to a table and sat down. As she started to drink her drink, my daughter exclaimed “This is my best day ever!” Lesson 3: Let children make choices as it builds their self-esteem and it could just be their best day ever.
