Thinking on my Feet

Matthew loves to eat apples.

They are his snack of choice, and he eats them regularly.

That's a good thing, right?

Well, yeah. Except for one little problem.

He has an annoying habit of leaving apple cores wherever he was sitting when he devoured said apple.
And I'm the one who tends to find the brown, wrinkley cores hours (or even days!) later.

So, the other night I totally impressed myself with my ability to think fast on my feet.
I was saying good night to the boys as I noticed Matthew sitting on the couch next to an eaten apple. I immediately pictured finding the brown, wrinkley apple core on the couch when I got up for work the next morning. So I asked him ever so sweetly to throw away the apple core. And, of course, he said he would.

We go through this all.the.time. I ask him to do something, he says he will, but he doesn't do it right away, and thus forgets.

In my attempt to have him not forget, I said, "Will you please throw it away right now?"
Matthew was really into his TV program and promised me he wouldn't forget! Then he asked for a piece of gum.

I walked over to my purse, got the gum out and walked away from Matthew. Went through the kitchen and set the gum on the counter right by the trash can. And I said, "Sure! You can get it when you come over here to throw away that apple core!"
Then I went to bed.

Don't know if he did it immediately, or not. But when I got up the next morning the gum AND the apple core were gone.

Score 1 for Mom!