As Rye gets older, he gets naughtier.
The worst consequence of this: Mommy gets meaner.
Lately, it goes like this:
Me: "Rye, don't run with that long stick please."
Me: "Rye, please don't hit the brand-new walls in our basement with that stick."
Me: "Rye, please don't hit the kitty with the stick."
Rye, exasperated: "What CAN I do?"
And then I feel bad.
At Wal-Mart last weekend, I actually said, "Rye, please don't make me be this kind of Mommy."
This was after he had repeatedly run away from me to hide inside the clothes racks and dropped a ceramic dog-food bowl on the floor where it shattered into pieces.
Sigh.
But I love him anyway, of course, even when he's naughty.
Now, if Mommy can just try to temper the bad even more and be nice while doing it.
4 comments:
Ah...the tricky balance of parenting! It just is not as easy as it looks or as it should be. Sometimes parenting quite frankly kicks my butt! I really don't like the fact that discipline may lead my children to temporarily dislike me. However, I recently heard that as parents we should constantly be thinking about developing our childs character and ultimately helping them become wonderful adults. Unfortunately, that may cause some hairy moments now but their future will be brighter if we can keep the long term goal in mind. So now when I hear whining and fussing it is sort of a sign that I'm doing the right thing because they are learning the lesson now instead of out there on their own without momma's shoulder to cry on.
Well, I guess all that you can do is stick to it. :)
Good advice, Jeannine. And you know how wonderful a parent I think you are! Thanks for letting me know I'm not alone.
And it's much better to parent your way than to not parent at all!
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