Today I am going to start off with a story. A few months ago I was grocery shopping with my daughter at Wal-Mart (I know, so magical already, but it gets better!) and while we were checking out she kept trying to play with the credit card machine. I removed her hands from it and told her no twice and then the third time I moved the cart away from the machine so that she could not reach it. For some reason the cashier thought my idea was genius. She said “I’ve never seen any parent do that”. So I’m thinking as I am walking out to my car “Was she serious, does no one else do anything about their misbehaving children…?”
Sometimes I wonder if I really am a mean mom…I use traditional discipline, I do not take back talk, I don’t reward bad behavior, things like that. There are just many things that I don’t do or do differently than other moms and sometimes it makes that horrible little question pop up in the back of my mind: Am I a mean mom?
I’m going to use the S word so if anyone is not okay with that you should look away now. SPANK. That’s right, you read it, I spank my children. If they are misbehaving (especially at home) I will spank their little bottoms and then they will have a time out. It doesn’t always correct the problem right away but I always talk to them too. I want them to understand what they were doing wrong and why they just got swatted. I don’t count to 3 and then do nothing about it like some parents, if they are in trouble they know what is coming next.
Most of the time my kids are pretty well-behaved in public, but there are times when they aren’t. And I am not one of those moms who will just ask them to be quiet. If they begin acting “a fool” in public I will yank them out to the car and give them and swat that they deserve. I will not put up with it and they both know I won’t so I haven’t had any issues in quite a while.
I never rocked my children to sleep and I do not let them sleep in bed with me. I know, I am awful! When I had my son he slept with me one night and the next morning I decided he was going in his own crib in his own bedroom. I have friends that still sleep with the baby right next to them or in the bed with them or rocked their child to sleep every night and I just don’t get. Why start a something you know you are eventually going to want to change when you know the change will be painful for all? How long are you going to have to rock them to sleep, until they are 12? When are you going to ever be able to have sex again without a child in the room? I guess I just don’t get and I have never really had the luxury of being able to stay at home all the time and take naps with the kids. I had to go to work and/or school with every kid so I needed my sleep at night. Maybe I’m just stingy.
I don’t let my kids play video games. To clarify, my son does have a Vetech Mobigo which does have video game-like cartridges, but they are all educational. He does not have his own x-box that he plays Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto all the time. I don’t let him use the Wii U unless it’s a game specifically for kids.
I did not let my children have pop when they were younger. My son didn’t have any until about 3 and my daughter was about 2 (and that’s only because her father drinks a tons and leaves half full cups of Mt. Dew everywhere). I do let them have it now but it is usually not more than once a week. There are exceptions of course, like this week, but even so they never have anything with caffeine, unless it’s my husband’s 3-day old pop…eww.
I am not a short order cook. If I make spaghetti for dinner and they choose not to eat it then they go to bed hungry. I’m just so cruel!
So I might be stern and even though I might think I am sometimes, I truly don’t think I am a terribly mean mother. My children are well-behaved (most of the time) individuals who are independent and extremely bright. And I want them to stay that way. To me, my job as a parent is to help mold my children into adults who can succeed at whatever they choose and this is how I choose to go about it.
mom of the year goes to... 