Mommy will read you a story -- but first she has a bridge to sell you!

My son was not quite two years old, and I was still getting the hang of mothering, cleaning, and prioritizing. One morning, he was following me around with a story book in his hands. "Read? Read?" he asked.

"Okay, honey," I said. "Let me just make the bed."

He waited quite patiently. As soon as he noticed I was done, he waved the book again and repeated, "Read? Read?"

"Sure, sweetheart," I said. "I just need to finish the dishes."

At this point, something inside him snapped. In the same piping little voice with which he'd asked for the story, and pronouncing each word carefully and separately (speaking in full sentences was still new for him), he rapped out, "Make the bed! Do the dishes! Make up your MIND!"

It was a turning point in our mother-child career. Neither of us gets to make a promise we won't keep.