My kids are at ages where just about every single conversation, comment made, or question asked is met with a monumental debate. Nothing is simple. Even basic things like, "You need to brush your teeth," or "Will you please get the dog more water," swell into an argumentative hurricane that leaves me yelling and wanting to rip my hair out......the perfect storm usually ends with me throwing my hands in the air and screaming at the top of my lungs, "JUST LISTEN TO ME AND DO IT!" And I don't know about you, but when I was a kid, I would have never talked back to my parents the way kids do today.
I didn't grow up with super strict parents or anything but I did know when to reel in the lip service and trash talk. My mom was "pushable", to a point. You could spar with her a couple times, pretend like you weren't listening for a minute or two, but then she would either paralyze you with her iron-claw-to-the-jaw OR the back-of-the-arm-nail-dig. Both were impressive moves. I don't know if my mom has superhuman hand strength or what, but when she grabbed our jaw and squeezed it, it felt like what I imagine a Medieval head vice torture-type apparatus would feel like. Your face was sore for the rest of the day and you had no desire to utter a word--mission accomplished. The nail dig began as the classic upper arm grab, done to really get your attention, but my mom threw in the Lee press-on nail dig as her personalized exclamation point. And the message was heard loud and clear by my brother and me. When it came to my dad.....there's really not much to say......you just didn't mess with him. He was and still is an extreme bad ass who will not tolerate one ounce of disrespect. Period. In addition, I went to Catholic school when I was a child and the nuns would slap our knees with rulers if we talked back, weren't listening, or argued. Times were so different then......
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