With my oldest 2 I could pretty much always guarantee swinging the odds in my favour. Be it a threat when they were little about Santa (yes I’m that Mam with his photo stored on my phone for when he rings) or work a trade off we can do X if we do Y first, if you don’t I’ll lock you in the shed with the spiders type of thing 😂

Jesus it’s a whole different ball game with Reilly! He’s having none of it.

“Reilly you cannot split bin bags of rubbish in the street” If he could speak I know he’d say “Watch me fool!”

“Reilly if you do that Santa won’t come”. He responds with a tap to his chin as if to say yes. He gives no shits.

“Reilly don’t you spray that”. 2 seconds later ….

“Reilly the door is locked you can’t go rifling bins”. He then hunts down a screwdriver to try and take off locks.

He’s like a cat. Does what he wants and when. He’s stubborn enough to train one.

The stress levels in our house this weekend are through the roof !

My question to you is how do you negotiate with your child? Can you negotiate with them?

As you know Reilly is non verbal or pre verbal I think now. But this goes out to all parents of autistic children.