Hurts me more...

There's that old saying "This will hurt me more than it hurts you". So true. Sometimes parenting is a real drag. I've learned multiple times that sometimes what you have to deal with is not worth the lesson you're trying to teach. Or it is worth it, but you still wish you didn't have to do it anyway. Case in point:

This evening I was getting Moose ready for bed. He was in the bathroom and was supposed to be putting toothpaste on his toothbrush so I could brush his teeth. I got a phone call and was talking on the phone, while still gesturing to him to do what I asked him to. He fooled around and all-around ignored me, not putting his toothpaste on. I get my stern face on (while still on the phone) and pointed to his toothbrush. He got totally sassy and was completely ignoring me, laughing, etc. This happened for a minute or two. I was so very frustrated. Finally, I grabbed him and sent him to time-out while I finished my phone call. Okay, reading it like this, his infraction doesn't sound very bad. But I have a hard time articulating sassiness. The boy was ignoring me (not okay in our house) and just being obnoxious. It got me so mad. So I brushed his teeth, denied him his last small drink of water (I know, I'm so mean, right?), made him swish his flouride and sent him to his room to be put to bed by his Papa. When he got in his room, the hubs took away his book. This sent him to tears. Serious tears. The hubs explained that we do not treat Mama that way and so he would not get his book that night. It was awful hearing him cry and whatnot. I really questioned whether or not it was worth it. But in the end, he was being really rude to me and disrespectful, which the hubs does not tolerate when he's home. (It's harder to enforce not being disrespectful or rude to the parent when you're the only one there. I find it's easier for him to discpline for the kids being rude to me and I discipline when they're rude to him. Don't know why, but it works better.) Anyway, long story short, I think it was totally harder for me in that moment to listen to his totally pathetic crying over losing his book than it was for him to lose his book. I think that's also true because I'll remember it much more potently than he will.

Disciplining your children is not for the faint of heart. You give them an inch and they'll take a mile. And yes, they can smell fear.