The Babysitter

Hi, thanks for your response! Yeah, I think the kid's a brat a lot, but I'm also completely inexperienced with kids. Aren't three year olds just bratty? I hope I don't have bratty kids, but I figure it might be a fact of life. And your guess about her being mad about her mom not being there is dead right. This is exactly what her major problem is, and I think she deals with it pretty well for a little kid. Her dad works 60 hours a week. The weird thing is, I've never seen the mother leave those two together. Anytime she needs someone to watch the kid, she comes to me, even if the dad is just sitting there on the couch or working on his car. It really upsets my husband.

But I think your advice may be just right. I can't be expected to raise this kid because I can't follow her mother's rules. I try my hardest, and I can follow the big ones like no meat and no sugar and no cow's milk (so weird to me!), but the little things like "no saying good job", well, I just can't do that. So I guess the less parenting I try to do, the better.

But what if this were your own kid? How would you respond to bratty little girl attitude?