To the Mothers at McDonald's today,
I would like to thank you all for the wonderful advice you all gave
whispered to each other while rolling your eyes today during our visit. Regardless of the fact that Felpsy looks normal, he is in fact NOT. What you may call "over reacting", I call setting a rule for the conduct I expect and sticking to it. While you saw a kid running past a boundary to tell his Mom "I love you so much," what was really happening was he was testing that boundary and my commitment to it. While I can see by the way your children conducted themselves today, that you are exceptional parents, it takes some of us a little longer to get things right. I, along with many of my friends here, would be interested in attending your next class on dealing with disorganized attachment and intermittent explosive disorder.
And yes, a four year old yelling "shut up I hate you" may need more severe punishment than "we can no longer play here," I cannot, nor would I, take his food and spank him. Getting such an emotional response from me is what he was looking for, we set up the rules and I followed them. Next time,
or the next, or the next.... he'll understand that the rules also apply to him. Had I had him for the first 18 months of his life, I'm sure we'd have covered it by now, but he has very ingrained trust issues, and I am not perfect.
Again, your kind comments and empathy have made my day, and I appreciate your loving support.
Annie
3 comments:
YOU GO, GIRL!!!
I, too, get tired of people thinking that I am too strict and over reacting when they have never attempted to parent a child with even a fraction of the issues that my five have dealt with. I enjoyed both the humor (whether or not it was intended) and the honesty.
I am loving your blog and am so glad that Sugar -n- Spice told me about it.
Do you want me to go hunt them down? I will, I mean it. Love your heart Annie and aren't we glad that God looks inside instead of what small glipse people see on the outside.
Yep. Been there, done that. Folks who haven't done what we do can't understand that sometimes a child yelling "I love you" in the middle of a meal IS actually disobeying or showing defiance and manipulative behavior rather than actually trying to smother us in love. *grin*
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