It seems like Laid-Off Dad is reserving the right to smack his kids around if they ruin the wrong pair of pants.
There's no doubt that kids are going to do bad things and annoying things and inappropriate things. But that's because they're kids. They're learning how to manipulate their environment (and their parents). They're learning how far they can push (or how annoying they can get) before they get what they want, like having ice cream for dinner. Kids don't see a difference between what they want and what they need. To kids, it's one in the same.
But smacking your kids doesn't resolve anything or teach good behavior. Even a tongue-lashing can be harmful. Lately, everything out of Toddler in Chief's mouth is a whine. "I neeeeed some mac and cheeeese," or "I waaant to gooooo to the paaaark." It's incredibly irritating, to say the least. On some of those occasions, I've said in a stern--and loud--voice, "STOP IT!" So now TIC likes to shout, "Stop it!," when I tell him to stop touching the M&Ms in the checkout. He shouts, "Stop it Mommy!," when we're at restaurant and I don't want him throwing the packs of sugar onto the floor.
Honestly, TIC has really pissed me off on a number of occasions. And probably the best thing to do is remove him from the situation. And in at least half of those cases, I'm probably exhausted and need to be removed from him for a few minutes.
Good Lord woman. You are kidding, right? I understand that you two need to maintain some level of acrimony or it just isn't interesting to us, your knuckle-scraping, nascar crash anticipating, argument seeking public...but still. It's a hell of a stretch to say that LOD was "reserving the right" to smack his children in the future. He was showing, humorously, that no matter how frustrating it can get, you can still keep your temper enough to not hit your kid.
Don't be afraid to agree to agree. There are still interesting things to be said on the subject without inventing discord.
Posted by: LizRM | Nov 10, 2005 12:19:39 AM