Spare the rod, spoil the child

[Jenny A]

Oh and as to being model parents, the only model parents I know are people who are not yet parents. Those "supernanny" programs make me want to hurl stuff at the tv. Very easy to be smug and detatched and sactimonious when you have no emotional attachment, are well rested, can go home and have a cup of tea afterward. At 829 in the morning, you're sleep deprived, when you have to be out by 830 and thing one has just poured shampoo into thing two's school bag and thing two hit thing one with a transformer in retaliation, and you have to stay calm and explain to them the reasons their behavior is wrong so they can grow into well adjusted and thoughtful adults...

I missed this last bit about the smugness of non-parents. This is perfect. And you are quite right about the supernannys. Not many would put a high schooler in charge of kids these days, but that's what I did after school for years. And it is quite different when you know you get to go home afterword. Heck just not being their parent is useful.

But, supernanny is not the only sanctimonious shades we can put on. Get a few years outside the pre-teen years and you can forget immediacy of all the little problems that feel soo much bigger at the time. I know my memory is fading fast. Give me a couple more decades and I'll have been the perfect parent of toddlers.