Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate, negotiate ....

 Am I getting any useful business skills out of this endless need to negotiate? Shoes on, shoes off, playing with this toy, or that toy, going to childminder, whether we go to the swings afterwards, whether the pajamas go on, teeth brushing, hair brushing, eating now or eating in 3 minutes, eating this or eating that, drinking from this cup or that cup ... the list goes on and on and on and on. Right now I'm at a friend's place babysitting their 2-year-old daughter. She whined just a little, as she realised her daddy was going out, but once she had the milk and I was midway through the Cat in the Hat, she dozed off, a full hour earlier than Nina's been going to bed. No doubt she doesn't wake up at 8, either, seeing as I know my friend drops her off at nursery at 8:30. But still! It's quiet here, and though they were rushed today, it's cleaner than our place. Big challenge. AND it doesn't look like a couple of geeks put randomly chosen decorations up with no thought to a colour scheme or any understanding of decor. It looks like adults live here. The living room is configured so that when you sit on the sofa you don't look in the direction of the toys. Wow. What would that be like?

But that's not the point. What I'm worried about is that Nina was fine until I stood up, at 6, and said I was going to make soup. She wanted one of her treats from the cupboard, not even a sweet treat really, just a baggie of organic fruit/veg puree (the Ella's kitchen ones, for those who know them) and when I wouldn't give it to her, she just LOST IT. COMPLETELY. So after some screaming, I said it was time for a time out, and put her on the time out tile, and sat with her because otherwise she won't stay there. And she screamed for a while, and I said it was over and got up. And then she REALLY lost it. I guess she wanted me to sit there with her - was it my attention she really wanted in the first place? We'd been playing, but I also had to look up which decongestants make you drowsy (that's another story: incredibly irritating rules, no doubt meant for safety, about how pills can't possibly be dispensed in bottles but have to be in little paper individually-wrapped thingies so you never have the actual packet to tell you what this thing actually does to you. Is it safer this way? stupid rules. And it makes you drowsy anyway so I didn't take it, sniffle, sniffle, is this allergies or the 1152nd cold ...? ). 

Back to Nina: was she just too hungry to think? Was it tiredness? I couldn't think, or cook, or do anything. I put her in her cot so I could start making the simplest food possible. Then she kept refusing to get out, but still crying, and this went on, until finally I picked her up, announced that the tantrum was over, put her down in front of some yogurt, and she began to recover. But she was still talking about wanting a time out, and wanting to go back in the bed. What was that? And I love her so much, and all, but ... coming over here to a quiet sleepy toddler who didn't have to negotiate which pajamas to wear and which story to read and whether it's a story or a song and which toys are in the bed and where's payeh and where's pengie (because the two penguins have their own names now) and every damn detail of every step from bath to bed, well ... it was a contrast. A peaceful, relaxing, quiet, clean, contrast, in which almost an hour has gone by, and back at MY house, the toddler probably hasn't even started trying to sleep yet. And there's an entire BOX of kleenex just sitting right here.