But you know better...

I have been trying to avoid saying this to DS1 as being a first-born myself I have heard it many a time. But today, he really made it difficult. Jack pushed his brother so I said

Me: "Jack, you must be gentle with Tom".
Jack: "And Tom must be gentle with me"
Me: "Yes he should. But he learns from you so if you are rough with him he thinks it's ok and then is rough with you"
Jack: "Well I learn from him too. So if he is rough with me then I think it's ok and am rough with him".

Hmmm, I admit it - I said those words I dread - "But you're older - you know better". :redface: Yep, sounded just like my mum!! :doh:

It's just one of those things isn't it. As much as you don't want to say it, you're left with no choice but to. He's so cheeky that boy of yours!

Sounds as if you will have a handful there MR because he is too too smart!!!

What a cutie pie... I bet he's gorgeous.. ;)

Oh and I'm not sure what I will say to my children... I'm the youngest..... probably... if they jumped off a bridge would you do it too?!?!!? I got that a lot.. :redface:

Yes, cheeky. Yes, a handful!

PMSL Mel - I guess it doesn't really matter where you come in the family, you always cop something!!

I know the feeling Manta, part of why parenting can be so humbling: I always swore I'd never say the things my mother said... but to my dismay I do :doh: and it gets worse! I have been known to say such classics as "you're not going out dressed like THAT!" and "Don't come complaining to me if you get hurt/sick/hungry etc"... and "clean your room, it's a pig-sty!". And I've even made reference to the "music of today" :lol: saying that it has no meaning and was too sexually explicit/rascist/boring!!!

So I've decided to make it easy for myself and just accept it... safe in the knowledge that my children will say the same things to their own kids. My ego can take it... does it do them any harm?

You sound like the kind of mum who would make up for it in other ways... me: I sit and play with my kids (my own mother didn't do THAT) and I tell them I love them everyday (and my mother never did that either). So... see... I AM different from her afterall ;) (We have an uneasy relationship if you can't tell)

lmao Manta. Tell them to stop watching what my kids are doing ;) Sounds JUST like our place, but now I am saying "Ashton is only one and doesn't know any better" lol.

Love

Oh God I'm my mum reincarnated now! It used to embarrass the hell out of me if I said anything that sounded like her, but like Bath, I've done the 'you're not going out dressed like that' and 'clean your room it's a pig-sty' and even the 'don't think you can treat this house like a hotel'. The classic one I pull out often (esp pertinent with teenagers) is 'we pay the mortgage on this house, and until you own your own house, you live by our rules'.

And like Bath I've accepted it now. :P If I avoided all those mummy cliches, I wouldn't have much to say to my teens at all! PMSL! j/k!!

Oh I just remembered another one... something that my mother always used to say to me which I hated! "You're too old to play with those kids". I was the oldest kid in our street... most of the other kids were my younger sister's age (2 years my junior, or there abouts). We all kinda played together riding our bikes etc rarely fighting. We didn't push too many boundaries... all the parents prefered we play outside but we made our own fun. But for some reason my mother wanted me excluded and told me I was too old :( Not all the time... just enough to always make me feel like I was going to told to play alone and to make me feel guilty. I couldn't though because eventually I decided that playing alone was ok if it meant you could draw or read a book but mother didn't like that either... (long story). So I swore that I would never say to my eldest that she was too old to play with younger neighbours.... until last school holidays. We have neighbours who i suspect send up their 5 and 6 year old kids to play with my 13yo for a bit of free babysitting. I tolerated it for a little while until I found my 4yo being excluded. He was told to sit on the front veranda until the other's "found him" but they didn't come. They went down the lane to play leaving him behind. I was so mad. And I said that my 13yo was too old to play with them anyhow. The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them :(

Thank you all, I feel much better. And yes I do like to think I make up for it in other ways. BUT Kat, I think we do live in the same household. I have to admit that "Tom is only 1 and doesn't know any better" gets a lot of air time here too :redface:.