The person you need

is Nanny McPhee. Capital M capital P. Heck yeah, bring it on. Nanny McPhee is my new hero, even though she is a fictional character. What mom doesn't dream of a person swooping in and getting their children to behave and listen? She is the woman of our dreams.  Seriously though, this whole job of parenting is a lot harder than it looks. I can usually tell the people who have no kids or perhaps just one infant in the stores, they are generally the ones who look at me like I am a horrible monster while I am pulling Alexander out of Wal-Mart  and he is screaming "You awe huwting me!" (He still doesn't have his r sound down pat.) Even though I am barely holding on to him while he is throwing a fit because I refused to buy him a toy that he does not need nor deserves. It feels as if they are judging me as a bad parent, someone who can not control their child by just the one outburst. While a lot of the times, the people with children give you a look of sympathy, stay out of the way and often times whether they realize it or not are smiling to themselves and thinking "Thank God it is not me this time!" I understand now more than ever why God has made babies and children so cute and adorable, it is so you don't realize how hard it is going to be. The same can be said for puppies and kitties. Take Miss Lauren for example, at least once a week she determines that I don't need but a few hours of sleep at night. As much as I want to be annoyed, I can't. After all, who can resist the loud smacking sound of an 18 month old's kiss? Or how when she hugs me, she still likes to sway back and forth and hum to me?
Now that Allison is 8, she is starting to get out of that adorable stage and has jumped right into the attitude, you can't tell me what I need to do. Oh boy, shouldn't there have been some sort of gradually going into this stage? The first time she told me that I didn't to need to tell her what to do and that she could do it on her own, I stood there with my mouth open. After all, here was my sweet helpful one who I never had a problem with and she's telling me no!  I don't know how long I just stared at her. I knew I had a choice I could let it slide or attempt to address the situation. After taking a deep breath, I told her that it was fine, but she was not to ask me for anything for the rest of the day.  Fine! She responded to me and turned round mumbling something to herself. Let's fast forward to a couple of hours later when said child wants me to make her hot chocolate. Guess, what I said? No. I explained that since she feels she does not need me to do things I ask of her and that she doesn't need me anymore that she was on her own. Needless to say she didn't get her hot chocolate that day. Perhaps it was an immature way on my part to react, but I need to teach them that I deserve the same respect they give their teachers and friends' parents. I ended up getting an apology from her that evening and I did not continue the next day with not helping out.  I think hope she learned her lesson. I guess that is something we will find out soon enough.