Pippi has to be told at least six times in the car to get her seat belt on — or to put it back on. It is so frustrating, that today I had my last bout with it. When I asked her for the third time to put it back on (I had put it on initially), and she refused….I said, “OK….I’m sorry to tell you that I am driving you over to the police station.” I don’t know that she believed me at first, but when I pulled in right next to a cop car, she figured it out really fast. I went around the car to get Pippi out, and by then, she was in tears. The whole way into the station, she kept saying, “I don’t want to go to jail…I don’t want to go to jail!”
When we walked into the station, I was hand in hand with my crying Pippi. I marched straight up to the man behind the desk, who happened to be a senior citizen volunteer. I said, “I have a little girl who doesn’t like to wear her seat belt. Will you please being out a very stern officer to talk to her about why it is the law to wear it?” As Pippi was bawling about not going to jail, the man said to me, “I don’t know if I can do that. She seems pretty upset”
I get that he felt bad for Pippi, the blubbering mess, but he hasn’t been in the car with me the many, many, many times when she walks all around the back of my car. We sat and waited in the lobby, as the man headed into the back - to get a police officer. I was so happy that something finally might make Pippi scared enough to wear her seat belt. After about ten minutes of waiting, while Pippi cried the whole time, the man came out himself. He was carrying a seat belt brochure, and behind his back he had something else. When Pippi calmed down, he pulled out a stuffed Zeebra from behind his back, and said, “Hi Pippi! The police and I want to give this new stuffed animal to you.” She immediately lightened up. Then he said about four things about seat belts being safe, and thanked her for being such a good little girl. By the time we walked out of the station, Pippi was in totally good spirits.
I think he accomplished what he had intended to. I’m not sure I did.
In fact, I actually thought the whole event was a little counterproductive. Pippi definitely got in and put her seat belt on right away. But there was no real penetration of a lesson.
A prefect example was about two hours later when all of the kids were in the car. Everyone got their seat belts on except Dash. He didn’t and wouldn’t. I finally started to lecture him, when he said, “Mom…I don’t want to put my seat belt on, because I want a zeebra too!”
See?
Counterproductive.
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