Have you ever lost your sh*t on another person's child?
We have an open door policy at our house. My boys can have friends over whenever they want. This means we have kids over after school, for lunches on the weekend, there are sometimes extra mouths to feed at dinner, and in the summer, I’ve considered investing in a revolving door. Most times my kids will ask permission if a friend can come over but if they don’t, it’s not a problem because I love the chaos, I love knowing my boys’ friends, and I love that these kids know they are always welcome here.
Parenting Dilemma: How Do You Enforce Rules For Your Child's Friends
The rules for our home are “house rules.” That means I enforce our rules for my boys’ friends. My boys can’t have tech Monday to Friday so when their friends are over, guess what? They don’t get to use tech either. If I hear a kid using bad language, I’ll call them on it. The only area where I’m lax is when it comes to eating. I won’t force a kid to eat something he or she doesn’t like.
This works for the most part but, I’m going to be completely honest here, with so many kids running around, it can be hard not to lose your sh*t.
One day I came very close to losing it when I saw my son and his friend chasing our terrified cat around the back yard, causing the cat to run up a steep set of steps, leap onto a railing, and almost fall one story to the ground. I ran outside and yelled so hard my face turned red – both boys looked at me with their mouths agape.
Suffice it to say, they never chased the cat again but it also made me realize how quickly your temper can get the best of you.
Right now you’re in one of two camps. You're either nodding your head because you would have done the same thing or you're judging me.
Which brings me to this intriguing show called The Slap starting on February 12th on NBC. Our Senior Web Editor at YMC Jeni Marinucci brought it to my attention and boy, did it EVER get my attention - like "gut punch" kind of attention.
It’s eight episodes and revolves around how a man slapping another person’s child has a huge ripple effect.
The trailer grabbed me from the get-go and I'm interested in seeing how it all plays out. So far the comments fall into two categories:
(1) The brat deserved it and
(2) The guy had no right to hit the boy.
I know which category I'm in. Now watch this trailer and let me know whose side you think you'll be on.
Printer-friendly version