Confessions of the Modern Mama

Confession #1

We all have fuses and some of them are longer then others. Mine has been short lately {my poor family}. I always seem to get caught in the heat of a teachable moment with my darling daughters while in public. The majority of the time it is a pleasant teachable moment and others are not so pleasant. Recently my 2 year old has been testing how independent we will allow her to be. She loves to “help” but does not understand that some times are more appropriate to help then others. For instance I brought them out to a lunch date with a friend from college. I had Neely in a stroller and Kelsey wanted to help push her out of the restaurant which would normally be fine but it was very crowded and there were lots of cars coming in and out of the parking lot. So I took the stroller handle to help direct Kelsey and protect her from any cars in the parking lot. Well how dare I try to take over Kelsey’s responsibility of pushing her sister into on coming traffic?! What kind of mother am I?

Well after taking over the reins of the stroller and Kelsey having a complete meltdown because of it.  I put the breaks on the stroller and disciplined {spanked} Kelsey on the curb between the restaurant and the parking lot for yelling at me and being defiant against my instruction. Yes I spanked my child in public. As I lifted my head from handling the situation a man was sitting right in front of me watching everything {who knows how many people witnessed it from inside the restaurant?!}. He never said anything to me but had an intrigued look on his face. I thought about apologizing as I walked by him with my distraught child but then thought to myself I have no reason to apologize. This is the way my husband and I have decided is best to discipline our children.

I look at it like this – I often hear older people complaining about disrespectful and lazy teenagers, often they blame that on a lack of discipline. Then there is the other side where people find it abusive to spank your children in discipline.

We discipline our children because we love them and we want them to grow up to be respectful and respected children, teenagers, young adults and eventually adults! Children will be children and they will have their moments as everyone does. But I am the parent for a reason and they are children for a reason. We are here to teach, instruct, protect and nourish our children into a healthy adulthood. So I confess that I discipline my children in public but there is no way I regret it!