Reverse Psychology

I am in some very serious trouble with this kid of mine. By that I mean all my parenting skills are going to have to change because he is just to stinking smart!

Last weekend Zack was playing outside with some of the neighborhood kids, then when all but one went home Zack asked if they could come in and play video games. I agreed and let him know it was only for a while because it was getting late.

They were playing for a bit and then I heard C say he did not want to play video games anymore but wanted to watch TV. They argued a bit over it and then Zack gave in and they turned on the TV. C wanted to watch something that Zack deems "a girl show" and they argued over that. At that point I said it was time for C to go home.

Once we walked C home and came back, Zack was getting ready for his shower and we had a talk about compromising with friends and most especially compromising with guests we have in our home. I asked him if he understood compromising and he gave me an example so I knows he gets it. THEN he said something I never expected. Nope not in a million years did I ever expect my 6 year old to look me in the eye and say "But Mom I could have used reverse psychology on him." After staring at him in shock for what seemed like forever, I asked him if he knew what reverse psychology was. At first he said "no, not really" then he responded with "OK Mom, really I do know what it means BUT it is a little bit mean." I needed to get his version in order to know what I was up against so I asked him to explain it to me. Darn if he wasn't spot on!! He proceeded to tell me how you tell someone one thing when you want them to do something else. Aww Crud, I knew in that moment my parenting skills needed to change, this kid was on to me and I was done for!

He then gave me an example just to make sure I understood what he was saying. "Well Mom, it is like this... if I want to play video games and C doesn't want to, then I can say 'okay if your not brave enough to play this then we can do something else' and then he will want to play."

I know I wanted a smart kid but gee at 6 years old I would never have thought he would grasp the concept of things like this.