Parenting

WARNING: There is a moment of extreme parenting in the following post - please be advised!

Last night, Zoe and I were sitting on the floor playing memory (that child will kick your butt - so you have to pay attention!). Teagan was sitting with us, playing with a toy cell phone and Nathan was laying on the couch and there is a nice, cozy fire in the wood stove. I'm getting all the pieces arranged when I look up and Zoe has the toy phone in her mouth.

"Zoe, that's gross. Get the phone out of your mouth. If I see it in your mouth again, I'm throwing it in the fire."

That was the first thing that popped into my head! She tosses the phone back to Teagan and the game begins. Less than a minute later, Teagan has the phone in her mouth. Being a reasonable mom, I issue the same warning to Teagan, just modified slightly.

"Teagan, what did I just tell Zoe? Get the phone out of your mouth! If I see it in your mouth again, I'll throw it in the garbage!"

Just as drastic but the phone wouldn't be totally destroyed and I could just put it away for awhile. Only problem, Nathan didn't hear me say that, so in his mind it was still going in the fire!

Not more than a minute goes by and as soon as I turn away, Teagan puts the phone right back in her mouth - just to see what we'd do! Nathan gets up, takes the phone from her and throws it into the woodstove! Zoe starts crying and freaking out (why, we still aren't sure, since it wasn't her phone and she wasn't the one who got in trouble. She's bit dramatic that way!). Teagan just sits there with a startled look on her face, realizing that her parents will really do what they say they will.

After things settle down and Zoe isn't sobbing anymore, I ask Teagan, "Are you sad about your phone? You weren't listening and now it is gone."

I kid you not, this is her exact response, "No, I have other phones!"

I look at Nathan, who rolls his eyes as we both realize, Teagan really doesn't seem to care and our big moment of drastic parenting had little effect on our child!