Sorry if this has been posted already
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2018/05/07/a-dads-cautionary-tale-college-search-a-promise-and-a-tattoo-shop
Anyone else in this predicament?
LOL (shudder!) I’m glad I’ve pretty much followed the parenting rule not to threaten/bribe or blackmail anything I couln’t comfortably follow through on… so far, anyway 
Ha - dad is a good sport! Great story! This is local to me, I hear this guy on the radio all the time. I’ll definitely think of him differently now. LOL.
I’m not really into tattoos, but the three crowns are pretty cool!
She better not think of transferring!
My mother used to bluff. Her favorite (back in the day when children had to clean their plates at mealtime) was “eat it or wear it.”
My sister tested this once too often, and suddenly it wasn’t a bluff anymore. She ended up with eggs in her hair. And she LOVED it. I was actually jealous – so much so that I refused to finish anything I was served until my mother finally gave up and dumped spaghetti on my head.
It hadn’t occurred to my mom that we would think that the punishment she had been threatening for years was FUN.
Go Dad 
More serious consequences in terms of breakdown of family trust could arise with financial promises, where the parents promise or lead the kid to believe that they will pay for [name of reach college] but then tell the kid that there is not enough money after s/he unexpectedly gets into that college.
^which seems to happen all the time unfortunately. I could never do that to my child. Is it that hard to give a budget at the beginning? Lord knows we all pretty much know what we can afford or are willing to pay. It’s just like the parent who always say “maybe” but really means no, I think its a terrible thing to do.
My favorite thing was the dad’s acquaintance who said "This is a fantastic, fantastic situation. I hope it’s required to be a neck tattoo”
Ha. A tattoo is an easy promise. Especially when (I suspect) the dad already wanted one but did not have an excuse.
Try telling your kid that you will run Boston if she applies and gets into a certainty college when you have never ran a race longer than a 10k in your life. Then when she did it, I realized that Boston requires a qualifying time. So it meant running at least two marathons. lol.
I liked the “great ‘No-Hitter/iPhone’ incident of 2015” when an acquaintance’s daughter performed this never-before-done feat in her softball league.
:))
Just passed that on to a friend who is a Gustavus grad.
Gustavus is a very popular school in the Midwest.
My kid is into fountain pens, expensive fountain pens. My kid also loses everything so when she wanted a $400 pen of course the answer was no. Then I was frustrated that she wasn’t doing any test prep whatsoever so I told her if she got a perfect score on the ACT I’d buy her the pen. She got a 35. The first words out of her mouth were, “Is this close enough for a fountain pen?” We compromised and bought a $150 one. She hasn’t lost it yet.
Our D loves fountain pens too — fortunately she is ok with the less expensive ones I buy her.
Just a reminder to never say ANYTHING to your kid that is either untrue or that you are unwilling to back up 100%. Not even in jest. They will remember every word you ever said.
Since the father did not promise a permanent tattoo, a teaching moment has been lost.
Teaching moment about exploiting loopholes?
Yes = a real world experience. Also about contracts & contractual language.
Glad the dad kept his word and didn’t try to cheat his kid.
We might need a separate thread on our own parenting bribery stories.