You Should Try This at Home

Talk to your kids. They just might be listening!

After the Thing with the Pencil (see previous post), I knew I had to have a Talk with my eldest. Something along the lines of, "Kid, you are making this parenting thing hard. You need to listen. Other kids are not running away from their mothers and hiding at the supermarket. At eight years old, you need to follow some basic rules, or this is just going to be too difficult." I didn't really have an ultimatum, since I wasn't ready to quit my position as Mother-in-Chief, but shouldn't he be able to follow simple instructions? I mean, other kids, little kids, can resist grabbing things off shelves, can walk, not run inside; I know since I have seen them.

(Once a saw a mom with SIX kids, all of them under the age of ten, at a coffee shop. Each child's hair was neatly combed, and they filed into a booth like small soldiers, and sat together, quietly eating cookies. I was in awe, and I complimented the woman on her offsprings' behavior; I also had to check if they were all her own, and they were. Her secret? She said they just HAVE to behave.)

So, I had a heart to heart talk with my eldest. I explained that, especially if injured (cf the Thing w the Pencil), I could not be chasing him around stores. He needed to think of the whole picture, not just about how fun it would be to try to pull the bottom can out from a pyramid of stacked cans. He needed to think of trying to be helpful.

Dylan looked out the window as I elaborated, then he said, "Ok, I get it, I get it..."

Then the magical thing occurred: he really did get it. There was a transformation, and a polite, thoughtful child came out, asking me, "Is there anything you would like to me do?" and saying, "Excuse me, Ms. Mommy, if I bumped into you."

Then, his brother, always attuned to a nuance of change, picked up on the new attitude and started calling me alternately "your majesty" and "sir," as in "yes, sir!"

Well, I knew it was not going to last, but I have to say I liked the sound of "your majesty" for a change.