In general, my 2 year old is a pretty laid back kid. I love him to bits and honestly, don’t like the thought of yelling at him or saying no to everything he wants etc. Basically, i’m a bad parent.
So anyways, we went to a gathering recently. The living room (where all the ladies were seated) is connected to the basement (where all the men were seated, including his dad) via a series of steps.
My kid kept running to the steps, standing at the top step, and looking at me and smiling. It was obvious he was trying to play a game with me. I couldn’t help but smile and entertain him for a bit by reciprocating and playfully going to grab him, pick him up, bring him back to where I’m sitting. Ok this happened about 3 times, and then I got tired. I gave him a couple of toys from my bag and expected him to sit by me, like he usually does at most gatherings quietly playing with those toys. But nope, Mr. spoiled wanted more interactive play or maybe wanted to go down to where his dad is sitting.
So…I said OK, I picked him up and brought him downstairs. Guess what he did down there? Kept coming up the stairs, would reach to the top, see me, and laugh hysterically while sliding back down (as if he’s escaping from me). It was sooo cute :)))
OK BUT, the thing is, I was constantly worried that he will fall off the steps. He is a late walker and really isn’t very stable climbing down the steps yet. If he fell, the basement space was tight and hard and probably would hurt himself pretty badly. Therefore, I kept moving closer to the stairs and monitoring him very closely. I didn’t want to get angry in front of everyone and he really wasn’t disturbing anybody, except ME.
So if you are the host, would you think “uff this mother really hasn’t disciplined her child at all!” Or would you think, aww look mommy cares about her kid enough to sit by the stairs and hardly socialize the whole time. This happened for the first time ever, because usually he is a very shy kid and really likes to stick by me at most social gatherings instead of running off and avoiding me.
