There are good moms everywhere and they come out of the woodwork just when you need them. There I am in public with my son freaking out and every mom comes to my rescue. “Is he tired?” “Could he be hungry?” “Did he have a little too much sugar today?” So I just say, ‘No, no, none of that. This is just his personality.
I have a neighbor, she is a good mom. So much so that I follow her around with a notepad, taking notes. “Okay, so let me get this straight, that’s breakfast, lunch and dinner EVERYDAY?”
Her children are so polite. They say hello and good-bye… to strangers. My children? “Come on guys, please say hello, please say hello to grandma and grandpa.” “No.” “Ugh.” “Mom I am sorry.” “You better teach these kids some manners.” “Ya know what mom? They’re tired and hungry and they have had a little too much sugar today.”
We went to the neighbors for a play date and she got down to eye-level and said, “Over here we just have two rules. One is if you go upstairs you take your shoes off, we have carpeting up there and the second is if you want a snack, you eat it at the snack table.
So when her kids came to our house for a play date, I got down to eye-level as well and I said, “gather close, over here we just have one rule. One rule. Everyone here wipes their own butt. That’s it.”