How to teach an 8yo to stop changing his mind last minute

My 8yo son has a bad habit of saying he doesn't want to do things, then changing his mind at the last minute. I'll remind him of a previous time where he said no and then changed his mind, in hopes that he'll consider saying yes in the first place, but he doesn't seem to care and continues to say no. I finally decided I was sick of it and refuse to cave when he changes his mind. I've been sticking to this for the last few months, and he's better at handling t disappointment of missing out on something after the fact, but it doesn't seem to be having an effect on his answers when I first ask. Our latest example is the city's big ferris wheel. We asked him every day for a week, knowing that he has a tendency to change his mind:"are you sure you don't want to go on the ferris wheel? You tend to change your mind when you get there. If you say no, we won't buy a ticket for you." and every time he said no. So we only ordered 2 tickets: one for dad and one for his brother... I would stay on the ground with the 8yo. Sure enough, as soon as dad and brother get in, he asks if he can go now.  There was no line and we could have easily bought tickets and gotten on the ride within minutes, but I felt obligated to teach him a lesson. I'm feeling a little bad for it now, but I just don't know how else to get this point across to him.Edit: also, are there any times where you think I should force him to do something that we think he'll enjoy? If we have kind of a once in a lifetime thing, should we let him skip it, or should we force him to do that he doesn't have big regrets afterwards? via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/33zQbhY