Observe:
“MOMMY! Paul won’t give me the big sticker!”
“Well, John, why don’t you suggest a solution? Maybe find out why he’s saving the big sticker, or maybe see if there’s another sticker he *would* give you, or maybe trade two of your little stickers for his big sticker. Could you try to work something out?”
“Ok…I will…
…PAUL!!! MOMMY SAYS YOU HAVE TO GIVE ME THE BIG STICKER!”
-from one of my favorite FB friends (Names have been changed.)
And the horn’s going off in 5… 4… 3…2…
I have a theory that good kids are just saving up their badness for high school. That seems to be what happened with my son, who had always been a good boy. Then, when he was a senior, he kind of went nuts.
There was a party he really wanted to go to. Because the circumstances were shady, i.e. I was given few details and was, we’ll say, highly discouraged from calling the mother of the friend whose house the party would be at, I forbade him to go.
Naturally, he was displeased. So, on the night in question, when I discovered he had left the house, I called his cell phone. Amazingly, he answered, and I told him in no uncertain terms that he was to turn around this instant. You know the drill. But what happened next was something neither of us could have predicted. Read the rest of this entry
When it was bedtime for us, the parents, we walked down the hallway, only to hear quick, startled movements from our children’s bedroom. My husband cracked the door open and peered in. All was silent for a moment, then, slowly, two sets of eyes appeared, one from under a pillow, another from beneath a blanket. “Uh-oh! Danger!” said the five-year-old.
My husband chuckled. Bolstered by his reaction, the younger daughter brought her entire head out of hiding with a grin and said, Read the rest of this entry
The Monkey brains in the Manchu Han Imperial Feast, Tao Heung Museum of Food Culture, Fo Tan, Hong Kong(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
My three-year-old was being even more of a picky eater than usual. When I was struggling to get her to touch her chicken, I thought providing a less desirable option would do the trick. So I asked her, “Do you want to eat your chicken or Read the rest of this entry
Please note: This is not my kid, but you get the idea.
Our two-year-old would not stop dropping food on the floor at meal times. Whether she did it because she found that particular piece inedible, or because she enjoyed studying the spatial relation of the food on her tray versus the pile on the carpet below her, the habit seemed unbreakable. Our best effort at correction was to sternly say, “No,” and lightly rap the back of her hand. This method maintained its desired effect for about five minutes, when our daughter, used to this routine and seemingly impervious to pain, decided to Read the rest of this entry
My three-year-old son was playing a little too roughly with his ten-month-old sister. “Stop. You are pushing her!” I told my son.
His response? Read the rest of this entry
I got really mad at my five-year-old son who had just hit his little brother. I yelled at him, “Do you want a smack?”
He answered with a smile, Read the rest of this entry
When my two-year-old daughter was throwing a fit, I took hold of her and looked her in the eyes, saying, “You WILL talk to Mommy nicely.”
With no hesitation, she got three inches from my face, tilted her head to the side and said, Read the rest of this entry
When I was having a stern conversation with my four-year-old son, saying, “God knows what’s in your heart,” the boy replied, Read the rest of this entry
my friend told me when she first met my newborn son. “He’s already mad. He’s going to be trouble.”
And boy, was she right. Four years later I came home from the store Read the rest of this entry
Motherhood and Martial Arts 