My mom is the of the best moms in the entire world. You would do very well to be raised by her. She is caring, loving, fun, and always has an ear available to listen. She also has tons of advice. TONS! My mom is never without a few words of wisdom on what you should do differently or how to live a better life. And this advice extends to child-rearing. I've lost count on the endless amount of things I've been told I could be doing to have a better behaved little girl. She refuses to take "Mom, she's being 2. This is how a 2 year old acts" as an excuse. According to my mom, my sister and I NEVER acted like this. And therefore, Sam shouldn't either. My mom thinks if it doesn't get nipped in the bud now, then she will become even more difficult and challenging to be around at age 3, 4 and so on.
According to SUPER Mom-Mom, all you have to do is talk to Sam in a reasonable, calm manner and explain to her that her behavior is unacceptable and how she should change her ways. Her big thing is "get down at her level". My mom has met her match!
Every time my mom gave me advice leading up to her visit this past week, I replied with "good luck with that. I hope it works out for you." I eagerly awaited my mom to arrive, put me in my place and reform Sam to become the sweet, mild-mannered toddler I know she has in her.
I guess Sam never got the memo that this was when she was supposed to comply and be good. And somewhere along the way, my mom totally gave up and threw in the towel. At one point, my mom focused her efforts back on me and insisted I take parenting classes. She even upped the ante and said she would pay for the class and swing for the babysitter so that Jeff & I could both attend. My mom had a field day looking at all the classes Dr. Renee Hackney offers and settled on "Managing Tantrums and Whining", with the offer that we could also do "Calm Parenting: Ways to Manage our Frustration, Anger and Upset" if we wanted.
I think my favorite quote from my mom all week was: "She is as bad as she is cute." And, at one point, Sam was in the middle of a fit over something or other and my mom exasperated said, "You're just being MEAN!"
When I saw how events were unfolding, I started getting concerned, very concerned that my mom was going to take back her offer of having the kids for 2 weeks at the end of June. Fortunately my mom can not be scared off that easily and is still planning to come back to get them. Let's hope by then, Sam gets the memo on how she needs to behave.
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