Sadist?

On another note....

Last night, Oscar was up late studying and decides to wake me up to see if I want to watch a show with him before he goes to sleep.

The way he wakes me up is by saying in a serious tone, "Francine. There is a fire." I jump out of bed, my heart racing, thinking about where it is, what to do, what to grab. And then he starts chortling and says, "You got up so fast."

He is obviously playing a joke on me. Well, I got mad at him. (this is something he has done before in different variations). I took him seriously and my body is pumped with adrenaline and ready for "fight or flight." I felt my body become super alert and then try to relax itself unsuccessfully. You know the saying, "my heart jumped out of my chest" well, that's really how it felt.

My ABA response is that I need to give him more attention before he does something like this. It is obviously attention seeking behavior (even if negative attention). And when I am mad at him after, it will only increase the frequency of the behavior in the future.

How would you react? Would you be able to laugh it off?

**PS, I am aware that the best thing to do would have been to laugh it off, playfully tell him he scared me and give him a little swat. Maybe that is the goal for next time.

Anyways, as it is the morning after, I need to forgive him and move on. There is a beautiful new day ahead.