Bribing my 15 month old

[AliceW89]

15 month old DS has always been a nightmare to get into the pushchair/car seat. Recently it’s been absolutely awful, especially the pushchair. He screams and arches his back and flails around and I’ve nearly dropped him on one or two occasions. The annoying thing is when we get to toddler group/the park/cafe/soft play etc he has a great time. His walking is nowhere near good enough to get there independently.

I’ve found recently that if I give him a banana or a rice cake or something similar to eat, he goes in with minimal protest. Likewise, if he goes into the car seat with videos playing on my phone or a snack, he’s fine.

Obviously at the moment he can’t be reasoned with. I just don’t know if I’m setting myself up for problems in the future by effectively bribing him to do these things?

*17 month old!

I used to bribe my toddler with white chocolate buttons to get them in the pushchair! Especially after toddler group and they didn’t want to leave! There was one memorable time when all the mums gathered round to watch my attempt to manhandle them in. It was awful actually. Dc was so strong, I really thought I could hurt them if I forced it. After that, chocolate buttons! No battle, no crying and flailing the 20 minutes it took to walk home. (I couldn’t drive then) So if you can get away with bananas and rice cakes I would say absolutely, go for it! Mobile phones etc didn’t exist in the same way then (I’m going back over 20 years) but yes those would have been used too. All good now, the determination is still in evidence but that’s a positive thing when all grown up 😀

My son often gets a rice cake to go in the car with otherwise we get the same flailing/arching/pulling hands out of straps. He is getting much better now so gets the rice cakes less frequently (and lots of 'thank you for sitting nicely in your car seat etc) but still gets them occasionally. I phrase is as 'we're going to sit in the car seat and then have a rice cake' rather than 'if you sit in your car seat you can have a rice cake' - turns it from a bribe to a coincidental series of activities (in my head at least lol)

Some days the path of least resistance is the way to go!
Nothing wrong with a bit of bribery!