Sometimes . . .

My mom taught me a valuable lesson one day. She said, "Sometimes you just have to pretend you don't hear. Sometimes you have to walk out of the room and then laugh where they can't see you." It's some the best parenting advice I've gotten. Children need to know boundaries--they also need to know that discipline is consistent. BUT they're kids, right? They have to play, too. So...you pretend. That's what I did the other day. Ty is in a 3 year old playgroup twice a week and it was his turn to host. Robbie was home that day and had to impress all of Ty's friends with the nastiest story he could think of.
"When one of us was little, I don't remember which one, my mom was holding us up and we spit up in her mouth!"
It was nasty. It was true. And it got Ty's friends laughing.

But they were Ty's friends and he had to fire back. "Oh yeah. One time, when I was little, I was on my dads shoulders and I pooped on his head!" (How he went from shoulders to head, I'm not really sure, but it did the trick--his friends were laughing in disgust). The story was crude, it totally wasn't true, but hey . . . the kid has to live a little right? So, I pretended not to hear. I played with Jimmy and let Ty be the hero in house that day.