The family (me, wife, 8, 6, & 4 year old girls) travelled to my wife’s parents for Thanksgiving. They live about 90 miles away, so while it isn’t that long a trip, it really requires at least an overnight stay, given the work involved travelling with kids. We were staying 3 nights due to the holiday, and to give the kids a chance to hang out with their cousins. My in-laws have a pretty big house, so my wife and I get a room, and the kids get a room.
The kids had a great time on Thanksgiving, but problems began at bedtime. The girls share a room at home, but they each have their own bed. At the in-laws, 2 of them have to share a full bed, while the third sleeps on an old folding cot kind of thing. The 4 year old absolutely refused to get into bed with her 6 year old sister. Would not do it. No amount of cajoling, persuading, explaining would work. Finally, I asked her “Do you want to get into bed, or do you want to go home?” I knew she didn’t want to go home. She wanted to sleep with us. Since the bed we have to share at the in-laws is also a full, and we’re used to sleeping in a king, that simply wasn’t going to happen.
But stubborn girl that she is, she replied, “I want to go home.” Knowing the old adage about never issuing a threat if you won’t carry through, I picked her up in her pajamas, put some socks and a coat on her, plunked her in the car seat and drove off. At first she was a little panicked. “What about Mom? What about sister1 & sister2?” I told her we’d return on Sunday to get them. At that point, she realized the battle of wills was on. She said “Ok.” and clammed up.
I drove for about 10 minutes, on the main road away from the in-laws. I asked her if she wanted to go back. She, of course, took this as a sign of weakness and said “No, let’s go home.” By now, I was getting concerned. I really didn’t want to drive all the way home. So I told her, “You know, Mama & Papa & your cousins will miss us all a lot. If we can’t spend the night at Mama & Papa’s, we won’t be able to visit at all. It’s too far to drive down and back in one day with the whole family.” At this, her resolve began to crack. “But, but, they can drive up and visit us!” “No sweetie, Mama and Papa are getting too old to drive that far. But you’ll still be able to talk to them on the phone.” Around this point, unbeknownst to her, I turned off a side road to make my way back to the in-laws.
And then she started to negotiate - I knew I had her. “Well, I don’t want to sleep with sister2. Can I sleep with sister1?” “Sorry sweetie. Sister1 is already asleep. Tonight you have to sleep with sister2.” “But sister2 snores.” (she doesn’t BTW) “You sleep in the bed right next to her at home, so you can sleep with her tonight.” “Well, can you put a pillow in between us?” “Sure sweetie.”
She thought this over for a bit, and said, “Ok Dad. I’ll sleep in the bed with sister2. You can turn around and go back to Mama’s.” Since I was only about a quarter mile away at this point, I told her “I’m glad you want to go back. Let me look for a shortcut.” and pulled into the driveway 3 minutes later. She stayed in the bed.
I am not always as good with the follow-through as the OP was, though.