I’m finding it hard to throw all rules and regulations of child-rearing out the window just because we are on vacation.Â
On sugar:
- For instance, I would strongly advise against giving junior an ENTIRE box of concentrated apple juice in one sitting. And you wonder why he’s bouncing off the walls at dinner.
- And if, by chance, he’s already HAD the apple juice, you are not allowed to then permit him to eat sugar cubes and offer him ice cream for dessert when at such dinner.
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On conversation:Â
- It’s not cute to teach a two-year-old how to say “shut your trap” just because you don’t like the DJ on the local radio station.
- It’s even less cute to talk about “how annoying your mommy’s being.”
On separation:
- When preparing to drop off junior at ski school, I would advise against the strategy of putting the words “new toy” and “when you’re done” in the same sentence.
- It doesn’t make it any easier to scream and groan and talk in melodramatic tones about how you’re NOT GOING TO LET JUNIOR CRY AT ALL EVER NEVER EVER.
On giving mommy-time:
- Offering to watch junior while mommy goes on the eliptical machine is much appreciated.
- So was changing that nasty #2 yesterday. Thanks for that.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I feel ya on the G-parents and juice! Good golly, my dad has it flowing like tequila at Spring Break! Craziness, I tell ya.
My eye starts to twitch a little bit when my parents come to town and they ply my girls with cookies and ice cream. But then I remember that I’m a big believer in letting grandparents spoiling the grandkids. My grandparents spoiled me and now that I have full appreciation of what it took to raise me, I think my parents deserve that experience too.
I was quite precious with number one and what my parents gave him, less so with number two and with three and four, I am like the above – I just grin and bear it and let Nana do a bit of spoiling. Luckily they live 550kms away so it doesn’t happen that frequently!
I can totally relate to the whole “I’ll never let junior cry” statement! My MIL tells me that all the time. She watched my daughter (16 mos.) this past weekend and insisted that she would NOT put her in a time-out if she was acting up because kids her age do not understand discipline at all. I had specified how we do time-outs and how they are age-appropriate, blah, blah, blah. Well, at some point she was doing something naughty and after a few “no’s,” my MIL told her if she did it again, she was going to get a time-out. What a surprise, she stopped what she was doing! I had to say a little “told you so” in my mind, and then I thanked her for changing all of her #2’s all weekend, too.