What does the clock say?

We have been trying to teach Evan to look at the clock to figure out if it's bed time. We put him down around 8pm, so we have shown him when there is an 8 at the beginning of all the numbers, then it is time for bed.

It kind of removes the arbitrariness of why it's bed time, we hope. (I think I used that word right, or maybe I just made it up.)

It was working pretty well for us, until last night. Evan decided he didn't really feel like going to bed, and he was prepared to bargain with us. He kept saying, "Let's go downstairs to play, just for a little bit." (The kid has some serious negotiating skills, by the way - he has been able to get what he wants since he was 18 months old. If another kid had a toy he wanted, he would just hand them a different toy, and they would happily hand over the prized toy not realizing they just got duped!)

So, back to last night.

The clock read 8:03pm. We kept asking Evan what number came first. He said "3." We said, no, look again. Then he said "0." We finally realized these were just stall tactics, and we asked him one more time "Evan, what does the clock say?"


His answer:







"Tick-tock"




Did I mention he is a bit of a smart-a$$ too? But, I must say, I am getting equal laughter as I re-tell this story, as what I did last night after he said it...