Case in point:  my son going to the barber.  Yes, I know he’s 5, I should have started taking him to the barber literally, years ago.  And just made him ‘cry it out’.

But I didn’t.  So now he’s 5 and I’ve been cutting his hair all his life.  This did not start out as a whole ‘saving money’ thing, although that part is nice.  This happened because my son refused to go to the barber.  He has thick, wavy hair; he actually has great hair, Paul Newman hair, but people, strangers, have always brought attention to it and him, 

“Look at that head of hair!”

“You’re so handsome.”  And then people, strangers, have actually ran their fingers through his hair or patted him on the head= Result: my son doesn’t like anyone, except me, messing with his hair.

The only problem with me cutting his hair is that-

1) I’m not a barber or hair-stylist and he has a lot of hair, and he’s getting older

2) Sometimes he doesn’t completely sit still for me and makes a fuss and trimming his hair can become ‘an event’ 

So we had enough.  My son has been wanting a Vtech camera, so you know what comes next-

The last time I trimmed my guy’s hair and he made a fuss, both my husband and I told him that
WHEN he goes to the barber, he will get his Vtech camera.  His immediate response-

“How soon will I need another haircut?”  

Are you kidding me?  This seemed too easy…

“In a couple of weeks,” I said.  A couple of weeks went by and so we went to the barber.  We planned out last week which day we would go, and we went.

We went to ‘Daddy’s barber’, a real barbershop.  As we were walking around the block to the barbershop, my son held my hand and admitted,

“Mom, I’m a little scared.”

“That’s just because you’ve never done this before, but you’ve seen Daddy get his hair cut here, and these barbers ARE MUCH BETTER than me at cutting hair.”

“And I get a lollipop,” he chimed in.

We went in.  Bobby, the barber who cuts my husband’s hair was sitting there- no wait.  He was happy to see us (we’ve all been trying to convince my son for the past couple of years to come in for a haircut). 

My guy got a haircut.  He didn’t even wince.  And that was it.  No tears, no drama.  We went back to our car, drove to Toys R Us and bought a Vtech camera.  And my son ‘has decided’ that going to the barber is pretty cool, (and they do a better job than Mommy).

So we’ve reached another milestone…

And it’s all thanks to complete bribery