Things Parents Say

Growing up, I just knew I would never be the kind of parent that says those clique phrases. "When I was your age..."
"If I had the kinds of things you have..."
"You should feel grateful..."
"Are you trying to heat the whole neighborhood?"
"The last time I saw you, you were just this big..." (yep I'm definitely guilty of that one!)

I know I have had moments where I did actually say some pretty standard parent things. "You better solve it on your own because if I come in there, no one will be happy." "Because I said so." "All I want to hear is 'Yes, ma'am' " This summer I had a cliche parent moment and I did it on purpose. I knew there was something just perfect for the moment and I racked my brain trying to find. When I did, it was indeed perfect.

Today, I was reminded of that instance. We were all busy trying to get things done around the house so that we could spend the remainder of the day doing the things we needed to do away from the house. Allie kept whining about Aidan taking her toys; when it was clear that "Stop making that noise" wasn't working, Dustin finally went back with a "You had better be hurt, because there is no other reason for that noise."

I went on with my business and laughed to myself remembering my cliche moment.

Not that my other children don't whine, or that she does it more than other kids in general, this was Allie again. We were on vacation and I think she was just tired from a vacation schedule. We had a fun time climbing around on these rocks in the middle of the city and when it was time to go, Allie wasn't ready. She cried all the way to the car, and since I didn't want to listen to it all the way back to Grandma's house, I insisted that she stop crying. Of course that did little to comfort her; that's when I started to think about that perfect cliche...I knew I'd heard it, if I could just remember it. This was probably a phrase that I was sure I would never use, and filed it away deeply for the purpose of never speaking it. Ah yes...the words I needed...
"If you don't stop crying, I'm going to give you something to cry about."

As a general rule, my favorite consequences are natural consequences, followed closely by taking the child's favorite things or favorite past times. In this instance, however, I was almost positive that a swat would have been perfect. Well, I don't know if I would have actually followed through right then, because she did indeed stop fussing and we had a nice talk on the way back to Grandma's about all the fun we had...whining forgotten.

Oh well. It is now a brilliant phrase that she can file away in the back of her mind vowing to never use.

So, do you have any cliche phrases that you are surprised to hear yourself say?