A look into the future of parenthood!

Sometime in the last 24 hours, my normally carefree doggie Zuma has developed a phobia about walking across our laminate floor in the kitchen.  I think it is the sound of her nails scratching the floor that bothers her.  Now this is not the first time she has acted like this.  The last two times she has been to my parent's house, she acted in the same way.  However, this is the first time she has ever done it at our house, and we have had this floor for over a year. 

Tonight after discovering the phobia, my HHBL and I both attempted to cure her of this hideous disease. 

My tactic involved bribing her with her favorite snack of all time...Kraft cheese.  Normally, just the sound of the plastic opening is enough to bring her to my side.  I tried to slowly ease her into it by dropping small bites of cheese at the edge of the kitchen floor.  She slowly placed one paw after another onto the floor...BUT all she did was grab the cheese and ran like a mad man.  My next step was to hold a big piece of cheese out so she could see it and give her kind words of encouragement.  This didn't work either.  In the end, I was really  pissed off.

At this point, my HHBL enters the picture.  His solution to this problem was force.  He picked Zuma up and physically put her on the kitchen floor.  My oh my, now this was a sight to see.  Zuma freaked out and tried to make a run for it.  The two of us tried to corner her, but all the ended up happening was Zuma scratched her way out of it (literally, you can check out my foot).  At this point, my HHBL was pissed as well.  With that, we both gave up on the subject for the time being.

All of this made me think of the two of us who are months away of becoming parents.  There is no doubt about it that there will be many times in our lives when we are faced with parenting challenges.  What will my first move be...will I try to bribe my child to get what I want.  I guess only time will tell.