The Repititious Life of a Repeater Late-in-Life Mom

Here I go again.

Seems like when problems crop up with my caboose kiddo, I think, "I've seen this before."

Some of those problems are showing up a bit earlier with Christa. I think that's because she's spent alot of time with older siblings--and picked up some of their habits before they changed their ways.

Yesterday, Christa backtalked me.

I told her what I wanted her to do. Repeatedly.

She "But, Mom-ed" me over and over again.

Even the evil eye--and I've got a killer one, just ask my older children--didn't stop Christa from backtalking.

And, of course, this all happened in front of a friend. A very understanding friend, who averted her eyes and waited for me to do the right thing. Step up and be the mom.

And so I did.

Because I do not believe that disciplining a child means embarrassing a child, I took Christa to another room. And then we had quite an in-her-face tete-a-tete. I told her I loved her too much to let her sass me.

Christa has a tender heart, and she shed a few tears. I comforted Christa by letting her know that her three older siblings tried the backtalking thing with me too. And it failed. And I disciplined them too. I didn't want her to feel alone in her misery.

A few minutes later, she looked over at me and smiled.

"We back on track now?" I asked.

She gave a thumbs-up.

"I love you, Sugarplum."

And then we high-fived and got back to normal.

Which does not include backtalking.