Reverse Psychology

E accused me of using reverse psychology with Owen today. I guess I did, but it was for a good cause. I was reading Unconditional Parenting. The author was talking about how praise can make an activity less appealing. So, I thought I would give it a try. I went downstairs where Owen was playing his video games and told him what a great job he was doing. Naturally, he wanted to tell me about all the great things he had been doing in his game. I clarified myself. I said, "Owen, I'm not talking about how well you are doing at this game. I am talking about what a great job you are doing deschooling by playing video games so much." His response was a questionable, "so, you want me to play video games?" I told him I wanted him to do whatever made him happy. He looked at me, smiled, turned off the Gamecube, jumped up and said, "I want to go run some laps!" I just chuckled. He ran up the steps and started running circles around our house, counting as he went. After his standard 20 laps, he asked me if I would take him to the library. He wanted to get some videos. It worked... just not the way I wanted.

I feel bad that I was manipulative, but I just wanted to see if it worked. I was surprised how powerful it was. The funniest part was when the neighbor rang the doorbell to ask if Owen wanted to play. Owen told his friend he couldn't play because he was going to the library. His public school friend responded, "Don't lie to me, Owen." I had to reassure our neighbor that Owen was not being mean and he was indeed going to the library on a Friday afternoon.