Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Why don't you just go ahead and munch on some of that humble pie....

I have a great son. I have an extremely active, sometimes a little crazy, and often times very loud son. He is three years-old. There are certain people who think that he should sit down, fold his hands, and be quiet. All the time.

Let me tell you a little bit about how I parent. I am tough. Having been a coach for over a decade, it is hard to hang up the whistle when I walk through the door. However, I have made the conscious effort to make my home a 'safe place' for my very energetic 3YO to be himself. Now, when we are out in public, if the entire store, theme park, etc, doesn't know my son by his first name, I feel it was a successful trip. Literally, I take every opportunity to tell my little buddy how to act appropriately in public. I am the parent who does timeouts in the middle of J.Crew and am the first one to admit fault when my child bumps into someone or something. I have been told that I am one of the strictest parents some of my friends know. And I like that.

For all my effort, and that of my husband, our kiddo is gushed on by his teachers, praised by our friends as one of the best behaved kids in town, and shocks people with his ability to take his punishments like a champ. Bottom line, my kid knows how to act. PERIOD. And if he shows out in public, we go home. PERIOD.

So when WMD is at home, I cut him a ton of slack. I am on him like white on rice when we are out and about and he gets away with nothing. But when we are at home, I let him go BAT-SHIT crazy. In other words, I let him be a complete, uninterrupted kiddo. He does get disciplined. But I am more likely to let things slide because really, who wants to be yelled at all day long? And quite frankly, I don't like yelling all day long.

So to the harshest of critics, who are constantly trying to make me feel bad because when I talk to them on the phone WMD is running around the house and screaming that there are crocodiles that are out to get him....suck on it.

My son went to Busch Gardens today. He held my hand or held onto the stroller the entire time. He rode a train, sat with his hands in his lap and made faces that made his baby sister laugh like crazy. He played well with other kids in the water park area and rode the Grover Alpine Express TWO TIMES without me sitting next to him. There were no temper tantrums, there were no timeouts, and when he ran into a little boy causing him to fall, he made sure he got up and said he was sorry. I taught him to look both ways before crossing the train tracks and he did it at every R/R crossing.

So the next time you try to tell a mom how to raise her child after you only get a brief glimpse of their life from a phone call or the 10 minutes you see them as you're passing through, please don't be offended when she rolls her eyes at you and pretends the words didn't even come out of your mouth. Because what you said (and have said many times) is just plain stupid.

Toodles.