Seriously, are you a parent or a monster?

Yesterday I was having a debate about smacking with some silly girls (mothers) on Facebook.  I have decided not to enter these debates ever again.  This will be my last post about it (hopefully).

I love how kids learn by doing some (a lot of) naughty things.  They can be really funny.  I do keep my giggles hidden, and then I give Pete 'the talk'. 

Naughty Peter decided lipstick would be fun to get creative with

Why do parents hurt their kids when they do naughty things? They are just little kids. Take some photos and have a laugh! (When the kids aren't looking of course)

I wonder who ripped that!?!

Kids are beautiful, they have tiny little toes and fingers (well my giant doesn’t haha) and their little ears aww and their tiny little bums, they are so cute!!

Pete drawing around his giant feet

Why would you want to hurt them?

I always want Peter to be happy.  I don’t want to make him cry because I've turned into a nutty smacking woman!  I want him to know when he has done something wrong but he doesn’t need me to hurt him to learn what is right or wrong.

I have been told I’m too light with Peter and need to toughen up.  I know there have been times when it has looked like I have been too light.  One time we were at a natural health clinic (I did type the name but I deleted it, if you have been there you would be able to tell who I was talking about).  We had been sitting there talking for ages, the lady was going blablabla I was thinking yeah just hurry up, you don’t need to keep talking, you just want more $$.. Anyway she goes and gets another lady to come and talk to me $$ and Peter starts wanting to go home, getting agitated.  The lady was ignoring him, she kept saying ‘me and mummy are having a grown up talk’ (whatever, more like an extremely long boring expensive talk).  Pete needed to get out of that tiny room, so did I.  If I was a little kid I would have done exactly the same.  He was good for the first hour, but after that, he had had enough.

Both of the ladies started telling me he needed to be disciplined, they were staring at me, waiting for me to do something.  Did they expect me to hold him in the corner while we tried to talk?  They didn't want me giving him cuddles and telling him we would be going soon.  It felt like they were really looking down on me, but it didn't matter, they just looked like 2 grumpy ladies who needed some happy pills.

I didn’t consider Peter naughty just because of how he was acting after being good in a tiny room for over an hour. I think it's important to understand why your child is misbehaving.  Don't expect a little child to always be good in an 'adult' situation.  

I don’t care what anyone else says about how I parent Peter when it comes to discipline.  I love Peter.  My love means I will never intentionally hurt him.  I know talking to him about what is right and wrong has been really good for him.  He has been so good lately, he brings up what we have talked about and he is so kind and loving.

I don’t want to hear people’s reasons for why they smack.  I don’t want to hear that they lightly smack.  I don’t want to hear about how you got smacked and it did no harm to you.

I just want to hear that you never want to hurt your child, that you could never imagine hurting such a cute little person.  They love us, and they want to make us proud. Please don’t smack/hit/abuse your cute little kiddies/monsters.

I don’t know why I’m even typing this.  Everyone I talk to who smacks won’t stop.  They have so many reasons.  They say we all parent differently, and that I should mind my own business.  The excuses are never ending.  When it comes to hurting your little child there is no excuse that I will accept as being ok, it is one topic I don’t want to debate!

and that is my long rambling...

'There was never a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him to sleep.' - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Michelle x