COOKIE'S GUIDE TO PARENTING

I am not exactly what you would call "a nurturer." If my step-son complains that something hurts, I tell him that until I see an internal organ showing up externally, to stop his whining.

This usually works, as most of the time he is faking an illness to get out of doing something like clean his room or take out the garbage. So god forbid one day his spleen actually bursts out of his skin, like in that Alien movie, because I probably won't believe him. "Put your spleen back inside your body right now or I'll put it in the garbage disposal - I swear to god!" I would yell. "Then you won't have any spleen at all and the kids will make fun of you and call you 'Spleen-less!' Then you'll wish you hadn't have let it pop out of your body like that!"

What can I say? I'm just not the motherly type. In lieu of a sensitive, caring approach to children which includes bribing them with freshly-baked cookies and respecting their feelings, I opt for the more direct, do-it-or-else approach which includes threats to shave their eyebrows off while they sleep - or better yet, just one eyebrow so they will be forced to do the other one themselves or look even more ridiculous.

You see, in my experience, when you show children any kind of kindness or weakness, they cut you open and laugh over your bleeding corpse. That's their job really - to take as little leeway as possible and stretch it to an entire cross-country trek of leeway, until they have stomped all over the rules and forced you to retreat to your locked bathroom with a bottle of vodka.

The problem with today's society is that many parents have forgotten the true nature of children - which is to lie and cheat and push your buttons until you want to reach inside your uterus and tie your own tubes together for fear of having another one. Parents instead prefer to think that their children are "different" somehow because they possess their DNA and therefore are innocent and pure. What a load of crap.

When I was a kid, I lied to my mom about where I was going, what I was doing, and who I was doing it with. And I was a "GOOD ONE." I got straight A's, never had sex until college, and didn't do drugs. Yet I still was a sneaky, deceptive little bitch. Because that is what god makes every child out to be, as a test for adults on whether they can obey the 10 commandments (especially the "thou shall not kill" one, which is always tricky) and as built-in population control.

Parents also are afraid to be tough on their kids anymore. Society has made it wrong to yell, wrong to spank, wrong to punish. Now I'm certainly not an advocate of beating kids or locking them in cages (except if you really, really can't find a babysitter), but I'm also not an advocate of taking all the power away from parents to enforce rules, either. Someone's got to be in charge, after all, and if parents aren't allowed to be, then the kids are. And that's NEVER a good idea. Have you read "Lord of the Flies?"

Parents also just don't want to be mean to their children. They worry that if they don't give their kids everything they want and let them do everything they wish, little Suzy or little Johnny will hate them. But what they seem to forget is that they can do all those things and their kids will probably hate them anyway. That's what the whole parent-child relationship is about. Doing everything for your kids and them still being ungrateful little bastards.

As a result, parents have thrown out their best parenting tool. And no, it isn't communication. It isn't love, either. And it isn't understanding. That's all touchy feely crap they discuss on Oprah and write about in self-help books, but that actually doesn't DO anything to get your child to behave.

No, the best parenting tool is FEAR. Fear is the only way you can truly nip bad behavior in the bud before it happens, or enforce the rules when nothing else seems to work. It's what my entire relationship with my step-son is based on. And I have to tell you - IT WORKS.

I've heard my step-son talk to his mother, and other people for that matter, with a total lack of respect - the typical "adults are so stupid" tone that every teenager in America adopts about the same time they start growing armpit hair. Yet he does not do this with me. Why? Because he fears me. He knows that if he treats me with disrespect, I'll sneak into his room and put itching powder in his bed. Or I'll tell all his friends that he likes to wear girl's underwear.

Would I REALLY do these things? Maybe. But it really doesn't matter. He BELIEVES I will do these things - and that's enough. I have ingrained in his brain over the years that no matter how big he gets, or how strong he gets, I will ALWAYS have the upper hand because I will ALWAYS be meaner. And he believes me. Because every now and then I will let him into my sick mind of tricks and pull out one of my ideas on child behavior techniques. And he immediately gets so scared I never have to really DO anything. Just the thought alone is enough to make him behave. And sometimes pee the bed.

It's gotten to be so effective, that even when I'm NOT trying to intimidate him with fear, he is still scared. For example, one summer my step-son had a habit of peeing in our hot tub when he was in it with his friends. He thought it was funny, and kept doing it even though I told him not to. So I had a conversation with him.

"That's just gross," I told him. "Peeing in a hot tub other people use is just like peeing directly on them. How would you like me to pee on you?"

This grabbed his attention as he turned sheet-white and began shouting and crying at me "Don't pee on me! I promise not to do it again! Just don't pee on me!" The fact that he thought I would actually pee on him to prove my point is a tribute to my parenting skills, I believe. He does not put ANYTHING past me, and believes no threat I make is an idle one - even public urination.

I'm telling you, the world would be a much better place if parents stopped fearing their children, and instead made their children fear them a little bit. At least maybe I could sit at a restaurant and not have a kid running around my table and screaming at the top of his lungs as he tried to stab me with a fork.

Parents need to stop worrying about what their kids think of them, and what others think of them, and do their fucking job, which is to have their kid grow up into an adult that hopefully doesn't pee in the hot tub or talk to others with disrespect.

I know with time, my step-son will understand that I was trying to do my job the best I could. Hopefully, his eyebrows will have grown back by then, too.

Comments

[Lisa]

Luckily no one is a work right now because I am busting up.

I did have a spleen incident when my daughter was in first grade. She grew up with three brothers and learned quite early that the Drama Queen got some attention. My daughter went on a roller skating trip with the school and I get a call at work and they tell me my daughter has fallen and is screaming bloody murder. I told them she was a drama queen sometimes and to give her a snack and a drink of water and she would calm down. Well, when my daughter got off the bus from the trip she was cold and clammy and her teeth were chattering. From my medical training I knew she was in shock and immediately took her to the emergency room where I found out that she had a pretty severly broken leg. We laugh about it now, but then it wasn't so funny. Oops!

As for disciplining teenagers, I learned that getting mad got me no where. Yes, getting even is the way to go. Taking away privileges has brought on more cooperation than yelling ever did. I laugh under my breath knowing I stil get to talk on my cell phone, watch tv, use the internet and see my friends, but my kid doesn't. Tee, he, he! I guess that is urination of a different kind....sort of. :)

[juneyor]

Finally someone says it! I'm 28 yrs old live on my own, pay my own bills. but I am still scared of what my mom " might" do. She's not physical or anything but there was that one time she broke my nose with a frying pan while threating to hit my brother.

[scriggle]

AMEN SISTER! and i'm not even religious ... that's how much i agree with what you said. my mother always said she "had the kind of voice where you did what it said" and boy was she right. i used to work with a girl who was afraid to discipline her child because she thought CPS would come after her. that's just not right.

[witchypoo]

Yep. The mind-messing worked for me too. Some of the threats I made I was so very happy I wasn't called on, but Ass Burger Boy thought I was capable of it. When your nine year old raises his fist to you, you have an immediate image of that child when he is a big 15 year-old, and something DRASTIC must transpire immediately. I told him he wanted to hope that he knocked me out cold if that fist connected because if he didn't, I would be visiting him in the hospital. Never happened again. At the other end of the spectrum, I sure hope I don't need looking after in my dotage.

[Kath]

CLAP. CLAP. CLAP.

Standing ovation from Denver.

RIGHT you are!

[Rebecca]

you need to write a book on this, in case i need it for the future. working in a grocery store has led me to believe children are the root of all evil, BRING ON THE FEAR!!!!

[Exene]

I find in interesting that your a step mother. And I never met a kid who RESPECTED their step mother because step mothers tend to act like older sisters rather than mothers which would scare the hell out of me if I ever had one.
I don't have children but if in about 15 years I might have one. I would probably be a hard ass too.

[HeyJoe]

I'm organizing a prayer vigil for you.

But you're on the money, honey. I've seen more than my share of wimpy parents and do my best not to join their ranks. Kids need to be put in their place and learn to stay there. In fact, I think I'll go holler at my kid right now. He's in his room with the neighbor boys playing video games. Seems a good time to flex a little parental muscle.

[Tigerlilly]

Oh THANK YOU, Cookie, for blogging this topic.

I too am a fan of strict rules and physical discipline as necessary, and feel that the vast majority of children and teens need to have their ass busted on a regular, scheduled basis. Because most of them are horrible, vile, beastly little shits ON a regular and scheduled basis.

I'm not saying you have to abuse your kid or beat them to death, but I believe in good old fashioned spanking and (when old enough to know better) smacking of mouths that are back talking ansd sassing and just basically running off with all kinds of crap.

Kids these days have no respect for anyone, and sadly least of all their parents, and a significatnt element of respect is, as you mentioned, FEAR.

I am 35 years old, and have yet to have children of my own, but I will be parenting the way my mother parented me when I am finally blessed with motherhood. Suffice to say, 35 years old is not too old to be afraid, (read: be afraid, be VERY afraid) of my mother! She'd say it, and you'd do it, or else you'd get it, and I mean BUT GOOD!!

[Di]

Loved this ... wish the NY Times and a few others would pick it up and have it become a parenting technique that sweeps the world.

When I was a child I did what my parents told me, now the step children are pretty keen to have me do what they want me to do. I was thinking 'desert island' but now I'm remembering how I raised my daughter ... that no holds barred 'I'm comfortable with mortifying you if you don't behave' thing.

[Daisy]

I agree. Parents have gone crazy and let children take over. I'm considered evil because I don't buy my kids everything they want and actually give them consequences when they behave badly. Ha!

[suburbancorrespondent]

Permission to quote your second-to-last paragraph in my blog sometime? With attribution, of course...

The only joy of having teens is the ability to be totally mean and not even feel bad about it. Right now my daughter is working herself to death because I may take her to Kohl's this afternoon (where she can spend her own money, thank you). That is, if I feel like it. If she's lucky and does everything I tell her to do for the next hour. The power goes right to my head and makes me sort of giddy, you know?

[Kim]

Oh dear lord, I totally agree with you. My mom still scares me and she's been dead for 13 years. I know she's got some kind of deal with God and lightening bolts.

[Cuz_I'm_The_Mom]

I have three teenage boys and a pre-teen girl. They are well aware that I am not afraid of CPS because my ass will sleep very soundly in jail without anyone whining at me for gas money; it'll be kinda like a spa trip!

If any of mine ever raise a fist to me I'll call the funeral home and tell them to come for what's left.