4. They'll say they will be home by 10pm. You say 8pm, but agree to 9pm. They wanted 9pm all along.
In a similar vein to no.7's cost-awareness schemes, the child's way of getting you to agree on the time they wanted to come home in the first place, is another act of genius. It actually follows the same reverse-psychology-sandwich as the back-and-forth we saw when they try to take a certain overpriced item home. Say they're going to be out until 8pm (or so you think), chances are they'll ask for some ridiculous extension on when the movie (or whatever) supposedly finished, requesting a turn-in time of 10pm instead. However whilst a want to keep tight ahold of your child throughout their entire life is something you cannot do, you also don't want to be 'that parent' who asks them to "come straight home!" following the completion of whatever the activity was, so instead you compromise with a 9pm offer. Little did you know that 9pm was what they wanted the whole time, and by planting the seed of a much later (and obviously unobtainable) time, you've just indadvertedly met their demands regardless.
