But not at your house? (but I understand what you’re saying) ;)

Susan; It’s such a shame that that’s the one part of American culture that hasn’t found its way over here yet. I’d happily swap it for Burger King.

Baino; Toddler groups scare me… I think it’s because the mothers haven’t clocked up enough experience to talk about anything other than their new kitchen fittings. Mind you I’ve never tried so I can’t really talk.

Mammydiaries; Thank you! Your blog is great – thanks for commenting and leaving a link :)

Grannymar; You’re too right… we all need Grannymars. There just isn’t enough wisdom in this game.

Unstranger; Thanks! I was going to say how the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that deserves a pint, but that’s roaming into dodgy territory.

Kirk M; You have my mindset entirely. If a kid wanders out into a busy road, it gets a smack. Better pain from its mother than pain from the smack of a car! Same goes for plug sockets… basically anything dangerous as you say. I think we’re just programmed to associate slapping with violence, it’s just a socially WRONG thing to do. The socially correct thing to do of course is explain to the child (using Venn-diagrams) the chemical composition of toilet-duck and its catalytic effect on the retina causing irreversible blindness. This of course should be followed by a snack of high-fibre soy-yoghurt. *sigh* We’re raising a bunch of Nancies.

Let’s take the example given. One child is running around squirting toilet bowl cleaner on another child. Does anyone in their right mind actually believe that talking to the child is going to have any effect whatsoever?

Your friend did exactly as she should have. Whether she may have lost her temper or instinct took over or a bit of both is entirely irrelevant. What she did do is succeeded in not only stopping the child but immediately impressing upon the 4 year old that this foolishness was very wrong not to be tolerated. As long as she finishes the job and explains to the child later in the day as to why she did what she did. You know, that what he/she was doing could have burned another child’s eyes out of their head for starters?

Somehow, yapping at the child with the bottle full of bleach and acid based cleansers about what they’re doing is wrong and how it’s not polite to do that to one’s playmates as the child playfully spews the bottle’s contents into another child’s eyes and open mouth as they scream, just doesn’t seem to cut it.

It’s totally amazing to me that instead of realizing what a horrible situation she managed to avoid just in the nick of time, she agonized on the ludicrous notion that she was a bad mother.

Or am I not living up to what today’s society jokingly considers “proper disciplinary techniques”?

Some people might find it debatable, but *I* think I grew up ok. LOL

And YES, mothers need a support system—and yes, Irish women don’t seem to come by that naturally. I was a bit amazed this summer in America, the neighbour women were often dropping in, and talked about everything/anything. It did me a lot of good.

Well, usually. ROFL