The Fear

How do you get The Fear? Our three-year-old, being three, certainly does not have it. So how do you get this small being to do what you want it to do? After all, he is just starting to figure out the will of his own, form opinions, remember events, and really process information.

How do you get that small being to listen?

Maybe it's not even about fear and consequences. After all, the fear of consequences doesn't work on adults all the time, either. People just do stuff and worry about what happens afterward. Cautious people might go through an if/then scenario in their heads before they embark on a task, but a lot of things happen without conscious thought, so can I expect my son to freaking listen to me?

Different things work for different people. Fear works for me. Consequences work for me. The possibility of looking foolish, doing something wrong, failing: all of those work to keep me in line. So far, I don't think my son resembles me as a child, so fear is probably not going to work in the least. In my case, I generated those things all on my own, I think. It's just part of my personality. Finn is relatively care free and energetic. He's definitely sweet and inquisitive. And he's three.

Rewards might work for some people.

Find the thing a person cares about, and use that. Money, TV, power.

In this case, I think our only weapon is Bunny Fruit Snacks.