There are days when I feel like I’m pretty damn good at this parenting thing.

Then there are days like today.

Last night the Bean woke up twice in the middle of the night saying her ear hurt.  The first time I got her to take her Tylenol without much fuss so this morning when it was time to dose her up before school I figured it wouldn’t be a big deal.

I am an idiot.

I first offered her the little cup to drink her medicine out of (grape flavored medicine she said she loved last night, mind you!). She wouldn’t have anything to do with it.  She flat out refused to even take 1 measly sip of the 1 tsp of medicine.  Fine- we’re pressed for time, so I put it into those medicine syringes and to give it to her.  It’s worked in the past- just get it in as far back as you can in her mouth and blow on her face while pushing in the plunger to make sure she’s swallowing. Easy peasy.

2 minutes later, the Bean is in the shower and I’m changing all my clothes because she spit every bit of that 1 freaking fracking tsp of medicine back out. She’s got it coating her neck and all in her hair and I’m wearing the rest of it on my clothes.  So much for getting to school on time- not happening with an hysterical 3 year old in the shower, a ticked off Mom scrounging for clean clothes and 5 year old who can’t stop laughing over the craziness.

So..the Bean finally gets showered and I’m dressed. We’re back to square 1.  I know her ear hurts because she keep cradling it, so she needs to have medicine before school. Period.  Now I just needed to figure out how to get her to drink it.

I tried explaining to her what was what- that she needed the medicine to make the boo-boo in her ear stop hurting.  She didn’t care.

Then I flat out told her- drink the medicine or else.  (Or else what, I have no idea. The kid doesn’t care if you put her in time out, take away her toys or ban her from the TV- she has no kryptonite as far as we can tell).  The Bean is not impressed.

Finally, it was time to bribe her.  Her weakness of choice? The forbidden fruit- soda. The watered-down dredges of our soda when we’re out to eat is the best thing ever according to the Bean, so I figured to be offered a few sips of her very own soda would be something she’d jump on.

I figured wrong.

It wasn’t until I sweetened the deal with the promise of donuts on the way to school that she finally, finally slugged that 1 tsp of medicine. That’s parenting at it’s finest right there.

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An afternoon trip to the doctor’s confirmed that Beaner does have an ear infection. That meant tonight before bed, I had to give her 2 medicines.  I’ll let you guess how well that went.