This comic is related to this musing: Regulating Kids!

child: Stop Mommy! Cry! Cry! No Mommy No!
Mommy: “You’re just a baby! A big giant baby!”
child: No! No! Waaaah! sniff.
Mommy:”I’m going to force the big crybaby into the baby swing!”
child:Waaah! No! Mommy! Waaah! Cry!
Mommy:”I’ve got my camera, I’m taking a big picture of the big baby!”
Hathor: “Excuse me? That’s a very interesting parenting technique, what is it? Oh, wait…let me guess!”
Hathor:”You see, I’m a bit of a parenting technique aficionado. Let me see…Oh! I’ve got it!”
Hathor: “It’s called ‘public shaming’ first developed in the dark ages…”
Hathor: “And the goal is a meek, frightened, cowering child who easily submits to bullying!”
Mommy:”Harumph! We’re leaving!”
Hathor: “Some people have strange goals for their children.”

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Around here we’re having one of those days, there’s more yelling, crying and carrying on than there needs to be, and the kids aren’t exactly playing ‘nice’ either. But we get through those days, take deep breaths, remind ourselves that we’re filled with love and eventually it begins to flow forth again. Usually, at least around here, no one needs to ‘change’ their behaviour- or ourselves, we of course are behaving the best we can given the circumstances (and our particular circumstances is exhaustion from a dinner/dance, and the ren faire this weekend.) We just need to change our mood. Regain our optimism. Have you ever noticed that the mouthy-lip from your 3 year old can be totally endearing at times and infuriating at others? We all would gain if we spent less time trying to change our kids and more time working on ourselves, our own reactions. And then serve as that role model of love and respect and generosity and good spirits, so that our children return it in kind. That’s it in a nutshell, my parenting philosophy. Notice that it doesn’t have anything about perfection, and allows for bad temper (in me and the kids, even darling superhero too.)

Well, just the other day I witnessed a mother shoving her screaming 6 year old into a swing calling her a big baby over and over, I have no idea what her perceived infraction was…I really don’t want to know. I saw a mother completely out of control, okay maybe there’s a bit of us all in there, right? But then the inexplicable happened, the other grown woman in the group took her camera out of her bag and started to snap pictures and say out loud “I’m taking pictures of the big baby, acting like a big baby!” So there you have it, not a mother out of control, but planned; cold, calculating and horrifying. I was too shocked to do anything about it, and really what could I have done? it’s one thing to step in and help a mother at the end of her rope, another to interfere with an insane parenting tactic learned off the today show…

Be the boss! Tips on regulating the kids
Dr. Ruth Peters on stern but creative ways to be a disciplined mom or dad

read it and weep.

Love,
Heather

this musing is related to this comic:Strange Goals!