The Babysitter

It's so weird. I myself wonder where she gets these ideas from, but I'm afraid to ask. She says that instead of saying "don't", you should phrase the statement with positive words. So instead of saying "don't unbuckle your seatbelt while we're driving" she says "it is imperative that your seatbelt stay on while we're driving." My sister (who has three boys) said that people teach mothers to do this so that they aren't saying "don't" and "stop" and "no" all the time.

Whatever. That's what I say. I think these rules are invented by psychiatrists who've never had children. They invent how the kid is going to interpret something and they make this stuff up out of thin air and parents believe it. This kid's father insists that she not call him "dad" or "daddy" because he doesn't want the connotations that those words bring. Instead, she calls him by his first name, or "baba." I think that's the most retarded thing I've ever heard. The baby doesn't know a thing about social connotations. If he doesn't want to be a bad father, then simply don't be a bad father. The word "daddy" has nothing to do with it. Instead, this kid had to learn that everyone else calls their baba daddy and when people ask you about your daddy, they mean baba.

Anyway, that's neither here nor there. The real crime with this kid is that she thinks she can backtalk and that she is basically a vegan (who is allowed to eat eggs and goat dairy). I'd be cranky too if I never got meat or milk.

I just take this all as a lesson to not listen to whatever pseudoscientist/naturopath/quackopath wants to tell me about raising kids. I think when I have my own, I'll listen to my mother.