I'll tell you when I'm ready to go

Today we had an interesting experience.

Bright Eyes did not want to go to preschool and did the whole scream and cry routine. He shut himself in his room, so I gave up and said, "We'll go later."

"I need to be by myself in my room," he said.

"Okay," I agreed.

Five minutes later I heard this: "You can come in now," so I went in and helped him come out with me. We started to talk gently about preschool and he said to me, "I'll tell you when I'm ready to go to preschool."

"Okay," I said. "Are you ready to go now?"

"No, not yet. I'm still patting the dog."

"How about we do 10 more pats and then we'll go," I suggested.

"20 more pats," he said.

"15," I negotiated.

After 15 pats, we went happily, and I mean really happily, to preschool. And he had a great day.