Saturday, September 15, 2012

My Turn

Last week,  we were all watching Mississippi State play Auburn.  I started yelling and hollering.  My daughter said I was embarrassing her.  I looked at her.  We were watching the game on tv in our living room. She said it again.  "I know no one is here, but it's still embarrassing."  

Then I remembered how adult emotion of any kind makes most kids of a certain age soooo uncomfortable.  I laughed.  She really shouldn't have given me such good ammunition. She has no idea how good a discipline tool this piece of knowledge will be in the coming years.  When kids are little, they can embarrass their parents pretty easily by the things they say and do.  BUT now it is my turn.

It will be a few more years (and maybe not ever) before I can embarrass her brother. It is too early to tell, but preliminary polling indicates he may be one who is just encouraged to one-up my parental embarrassment tactics. 

3 comments:

  1. I totally use this as a discipline tool. It's something I learned from my own dad and Jill Conner Browne, The Sweet Potato Queen. She says she'd lean over to her daughter when she was misbehaving and say "If you don't stop on a dime, I will do something mortifying." Never failed to work. And, it's more fun, IMO.

    It's also useful on kids who are interested in one-upsmanship as it can redirect bad behavior into goofy behavior. again, way more fun.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The best story I have ever heard on this topic follows. A daughter asked her mother to drop her off a block from her school as she was embarrassed to be seen with her mom. So her mom drove right up in front of the school got out of the car and yelled "Have a wonderful day! I love you." all while waving her arms wildly. I love this story!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes, great ammunition! Take it from someone who has gotten to practice this for a while now...mwahahaha!
    Meli

    ReplyDelete