You know the ones.
The ones that drive you CRAZY.
The ones that let their kids run wild and refuse to discipline them.
'He's just a kid!' is no excuse for your kid hitting and screaming and being a brat.
The correct response is - He's a damn brat and needs to be disciplined.
I will spank my children, if they deserve it.
Oh, I'll try other punishments as well...
but when push comes to shove, I'm not above a swat on the bottom.
Please don't let me be like that?
I'm not going to be the kind of mother who takes my child to a movie
Only to let them scream and whine and cry and talk through the whole thing.
If *my* child is misbehaving, and *I* can't get them to stop...
Then *I'm* going to be the one missing out. I won't punish innocent bystanders!
If my child has ADD or Autism or any other disability...
I won't make excuses for him/her.
I won't let my child grow up to think of their disability as a weakness,
And I definitely won't let them think they can get away with murder because of it.
Sure, it means we'll have to work harder.
Just because my child has problems is no excuse to let them be a hellion and a brat.
There are rules. He or she will abide by said rules.
You act a certain way in public. If you don't, you don't get to go out in public.
I'll teach my child respect.
You don't interrupt adults, unless it is an emergency.
You don't yell and scream in public - unless you are at the park, and playing like that is appropriate.
You don't throw fits in public, it won't get you what you want anyway.
You say 'please' and 'thank-you' and 'excuse me.'
You don't talk back to your elders.
And if you do, they have my full permission to tell me, or to swat your bottom.
Does that seem mean and unfair? To hold my child to a high standard?
To teach them that there is play time and there is quiet time?
I don't want to stifle my child's creativity,
but I'll be damned if I'm one of *THOSE* mothers.
So please, don't let me be like that.
And if I am, feel free to slap me silly.
I love this post so much April! Having a younger brother with autism, there were many times as he grew up we had to say "He will not react well in situation" and not do it.
ReplyDeleteI have a brother with Cystic Fibrosis and it has caused a lot of stress between my parents and I. Where I got all the discipline, they let him run wild (likely out of a sense of guilt and wanting to let him live life to the fullest).
ReplyDelete@Kendra - Thank you! :) I just see a lot of people who use it to make excuses - 'It's ok for my kid to run around the store screaming and yelling and grabbing things, he has *insert disability here*' and I just don't want to do that. It doesn't teach the child anything...Yes, I can understand how difficult it is, but you can compensate for those difficulties.
ReplyDelete@Char - I can understand how it would be easy to do that. This was in part a reminder to me to not be one of those mothers that drive me crazy...because sometimes when I see them, I just want to shake them. :)
Amen!
ReplyDelete