Not a rassling smackdown

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http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/07/05/granderson.bratty.kids/index.html

Here's my take on this piece.

The kid acting out on the airplane? I'da put him in his place and his parents too.

I've done it. Just not on an airplane.

My kids are well behaved in public. Very well. I've had people come up and tell me so.

They were very happy to do so. I've told other parents of well behaved kids the same thing.

I did not abuse my children to make this happen. In fact, I only had to take action One Time to make 'em behave in public, circumstance specific.

I told them they could behave or we'd leave. Right then.

They didn't believe me. I picked up the offending child and walked right out of the restaurant. Left my meal on the table. Left the child's on the table. I said "Your momma (and your sibling) can finish their meal. When they are done, we will go home."

It happened once. Never happened again.

One day I took Susan to work with me. I was at the Police Department. I said it was time to leave. Susan sat down and refused to budge. I told Ollie (dispatcher) where I was headed (next door to City Hall) and I walked out.

3 minutes later here comes Ollie with a bawling her eyes out Susan in tow.

It happened once. Never happened again.

My daughter is about to 13. I have paddled her once. Jesse is about to be 15. He's been paddled less than 10 times.

My kids are behaved. Why? Because I demand their respect? NO!

Because I respect them.

Because I keep my word.

Because I hug them daily.

By doing so, I earn their respect.

In turn they want my respect. That matters more than anything else to them.

Which does not mean my kids are under iron control. They can and do go wild. They know when and where this is permissible and it ain't in public.

They also know they don't have to put up with idiot adults. Susan in particular will leave idiots gasping like a fish on the sidewalk. But they also respect positions of authority, if not the person in authority. There is a vast difference.

Furthermore, my kids challenge me. They contradict me. They are known to talk back to me. They sometimes sass me.

Yanno what? I not only tolerate this (sometimes and not in public), but I sometimes encourage it because when my kids can get better of me, they are using cognitive abilities and critical thinking skills that put them ABOVE the average college freshman.

In order to get away with it, they know they HAVE to be thinking just as hard as they can.

Can your kids do that? Strike that. DO your kids do that?

If they slack off in retorts to me, I make sure they know their Old Man is still the Alpha Male in the Redneck Genius Household.

If you can't finish it, best not start it.

When they realize they can do it and I don't take corrective action because they outsmarted me, they try much harder to do it again AND they try exponentially much harder to make me proud of 'em. (Which I always am and I tell 'em I am proud of their work. Frequently.)

My kids would rather achieve something by outsmarting me and that good and me be proud of that than to manage to outsmart me in being difficult to deal with.

Do your kids do that?

Mine do.

They are my children.

I am proud of them because they are being all they can be.