Trying out being nice?!

My sister and my nieces are here visiting, and my son is excited that they are here, but I think he is most excited that he gets to take a day off and go to Universal Studios instead of to school. He is also excited to get to prank them.  It’s true, all these girls have invaded his space and are sleeping in his bed and living in his room and leaving bras on his bedroom floor, something that thoroughly disgusts him. It’s not that he is usually mean to my nieces, he loves them, he enjoys spending time with them, but he also likes to tease them any way he can. He has already put his plastic bugs under all the pillows and tried to pour salt on their cereal. He has hidden their shoes and taken blackmail pictures of them sleeping. So, when he spends the morning asking my oldest niece about college and how she is doing and if she needs anything, she is justifiably suspicious. I hear her asking my son, “Why are you being so nice to me?” His reply, “I’m just trying it out.” She has a big laugh at that, so do I. But as the mother, I feel that however funny his comment is, I must follow up my laughter with a query as to why he needs to ‘try out being nice’.  His reply to that, “To see if I like it.”  “And?” I ask curiously.  “It’s okay,” he tells me.   Alright then, it’s okay to be nice, it feels okay. Should I be proud, confused, concerned or just indifferent? Should I let it go right here or turn this into a long discussion about behavior and morals and that fact that It matters. Shouldn’t everyone automatically feel great about being nice? Why does one need to try it on for size? I wonder if this is a kid thing? Do they all try being nice on for size before they commit? I have to let it go for now though, I realize, because we’ve got something to do today.  I tell him that we are taking him out for ice cream. He jumps up with a huge grin and punches the air with a loud whoop and a ‘yeah!’ Then, he calms down quickly and says, “Wait. Why?” “Why not?” I say. “Why are we going for ice cream? What’s the catch?” The catch is that we are also going shopping for a prom dress for my other niece. Ah ha. I’m caught.  I see the day before me suddenly, and I don’t see my son spending any more time on the trying out being nice thing, in fact,  I’ll be lucky to escape this day without a migraine. So much for being nice. I guess I need to up my bribes!