“Your prompt for January 14th, 2018, brought to you by a new-to-me blogger, Itinerary Planner, is “Ultimatum.” Use it any way you’d like in your post. And make sure you visit Itinerary Planner at her blog, “Travel Itineraries: Travel the World for Less” (sounds good to me!) to read her post and say hi! Here’s her link:  https://traveltinerary.com/“ (https://lindaghill.com/2018/01/14/jusjojan-daily-prompt-january-14th-2018/)  These Jots are not only my 500-words a day challenge, but also part of my  Ultimate Blogging Challenge challenge (http://ultimateblogchallenge.com).

Ultimatum

This topic made me wonder, what is an ultimatum anyway?  I mean, I know what it is, but I thought, hey.  I should look it up to make sure I really understand this word before I write about it.  So, I looked it up, and the dictionary says that an ultimatum is “a final demand or statement of terms, the rejection of which will result in retaliation or a breakdown in relations.”  So, basically, it’s someone saying that someone else had better do something or else.  Yeah.  I don’t think ultimatums probably work very well, if they work at all.  Kind of like a dare, or a triple dog dare.  I don’t do dare.  I don’t do ultimatums.  If you have to issue me an ultimatum for something, you’ve got a problem.  If I think something is worth doing, I’ll do it.  But if you have to threaten me to get me to do something, then I think you need to go back to the drawing board.

Also, the idea that an ultimatum is a “final demand”?  How many times have you heard someone say “do that or else”, and then have to change the “or else” because the something didn’t get done?  Does this mean then that it’s not really an ultimatum?  Can you up-ultimatum your ultimatum?  For example, “clean your room, or no supper” … ”ok, you can have supper, but no dessert if your room isn’t clean” … “ok, you can have dessert if you promise to clean your room after”.  And so on, and so on.

Leaders sometimes try ultimatums with other countries.  But who do those leaders (presidents, prime ministers, whatever) think they are telling other countries they can’t run their countries the way they want to?  I’ve always wondered that.  Why not suck it up and talk to each other about the issues?  Just saying, stop that or we won’t send you goods anymore…how often does that actually work?  Do the issues ever get resolved, or do they just fester under the surface until one day they explode in everyone’s faces?

I’m not very good at issuing ultimatums for myself.  You know the kind: go to the gym or no chocolate tonight.  Yeah, I think, good idea!  That will get me to the gym for sure, I think all day long.  Then the end of the day comes, and I’m all like, I can do what I want.  Who’s going to stop me from having chocolate if I don’t go to the gym?  I may feel guilty about it, but I will still enjoy the chocolate.

I hear parents sometimes try ultimatums with their kids.  You know, like the one about cleaning your room and dessert.  I imagine at some point they stop working.  Mom and dad tell me that I liked being sent to my room when I did something wrong because I could just pull out a book and read.  Yay ultimatums!

One thing I can tell you for sure, ultimatums don’t work with kittens.