Bad Influence

Pretty much every child who is not your own is going to be a bad influence on yours at some point.  Remember?  We're all different so the things we hold up as important are not always the same.  I learned this lesson on our first trip to Disneyland three weeks before my daughter turned 2 years old. 

She was a really good kid - still is actually and when I told her no, she usually listened.  But here we are in the happiest place on Earth and for some reason people don't like to tell their children no under the watchful eyes of Mickey Mouse.  We're in line for a ride and the child in front of us climbs up on the handrail and climbs over, then she crawls underneath and begins again.  I had already discussed with my little girl that we do not climb or sit on the handrails because it's against the rules.  For the first time in my motherhood I was faced with the big question:  Why can she but I can't?

We only get a split second sometimes to make decisions about our children that will shape their entire futures, and ours too since we have to deal with the little buggers for 18 years.  So when my almost two year old turned to me and looked at me with questioning eyes, I came up with, "Just because other people break the rules doesn't mean that we do."  I went on to tell her that it wasn't safe to climb on things, it was a bad example for other children and also thousands of people touched those bars - who knows if the last person that walked by just scratched their butt - and you'd be touching it and not washing your hands until our next bathroom break - gross!  She got the point, I got a favorite new saying to use and the mom in front of us got to pretend she was just noticing her brat climbed in and out of the railing and tell her no.  Yeah, I believe that.

"Just because other people break the rules, doesn't mean that we do."  That's how I say it and I've been saying it for seven years.  I don't say it too much anymore because my children learned the lesson early on and now they just ignore children who don't have the same rules we do.  They aren't bitter about it, it's an easy way of accepting things they can't change.  My son was a little more difficult because....well, he's just a little more difficult to do everything with.  But I feel like they've got a handle on it.  And it's an easy way for me to let it go too.  Otherwise you'd hear me telling kids and parents off wherever we go:  "Don't walk up the slide!"  "Look with your eyes not with your hands!"  "Stop climbing on everything!" 

Don't misunderstand me - I don't mind yelling at other people's kids.  I've been known to yell at kids I know and kids I've never met.  Oddly enough, parent tend to get a little cranky when I don't know them and tell their kids to knock it off.  Hey, you know what?  If you aren't gonna parent your kid in front of me I'm going to assume you don't know how it's done and you need a lesson!  Free of charge and you're welcome.