Parenting

What kind of parent are you? I started thinking about this yesterday while sitting at Maddie's gymnastics class. I was cutting a bunch of things out for Maddie's teacher. I had two pair of scissors for some reason, so I gave Becca a pair of scissors and she started cutting the scraps. Well, these weren't the little kids scissors. They were the large adult only type of scissors. But she was quiet. No screaming, no running around, no climbing all over me. And I was watching her. I wasn't going to let her run around with them. I'm sure there were some moms there watching me in disbelief, but I didn't care much.

Next to me was another mom and her 3 year old daughter. We found out her name was Becca too, so the girls started playing together. The other Becca started walking toward the gym floor. She had probably taken 3 or 4 steps away from mom, then started spinning in circles. It was cute. Nothing wrong with it, right? Well, here is what this mom said: (all in a very calm voice)

"Becca, honey. You need to come back here. You are too far from mommy. Becca, do you hear me? If you don't get back here, then you are choosing to lose your freedom. Do you understand this Becca? If you lose your freedom, then you won't be able to play any more. (Becca is still spinning- an arms length away from mom). Your freedom is about to be lost. I am going to take your freedom away and you will be very sad. (Becca still spinning- she has got to be dizzy by now). I'm going to have to get the stroller and you will sit in it. Your freedom will be lost when you have to sit in the stroller. Get over here next to mommy or no more freedom. I know you hear me Becca. By not listening, you are showing me you want to lose your freedom. Ok, I'm going to have to start counting. Mommy doesn't like to count. When I start counting, then you know you will have lost all freedom that you did have. Here I go. I'm going to count now. Are you sure you want to lose your freedom? O.k. One, two... (Becca stopped spinning and took two steps and was next to mom)

I almost started laughing! I couldn't even tell you for sure how many times that mom had said the word "freedom". It was crackin' me up!

First of all, the other Becca was doing no harm. Secondly, she was two feet away from her mother. Grab her arm and tell her to sit down if it was bothering her so much!

Here's how the conversation would have gone if it was me:

"Becca, be sure you're out of the way of people." (Let her spin) After about 5 minutes of spinning- "Are you dizzy yet? Do you want to sit down? If she said no, I would say, "O.k., one more minute of spinning, then I want you to sit down." After one more minute, I'd tell her to come sit down now. If she still didn't listen, I'd either start to count, or get up, take one big step to her, take her by her arm or hand and say, "Time to sit with me now. Let's color instead of spinning."

End of conversation. No one lost their "freedom". Becca knows I mean business when I tell her to do something. I don't give her 50 chances to listen to me. In our house, if we have to count, the girls know what it means. When we say ONE, it means- you had better listen. TWO- means, you had better move faster! THREE means a spanking because you didn't listen. But we've done this since they were very little, so they get it.

So I guess I'm the type of parent that doesn't put up with a whole lot. Granted, it does depend on the day. But in general, I don't give the girls 50 chances.

Side note- still at 164. Had a bad weekend. Russ' sisters were here from Iowa. It seems like any time we have company that's a great excuse to eat whatever you want. I have got to stop this thinking! I went to aerobics on Tuesday. It was great. I took a trekking class today. I walked a mile before the class started, then ran/walked 4 miles during the class. Then I went to a 20 minute abs class after that. My stomach is going to be sore in the morning!