this woman dubbed herself the "meanest mom" for selling her 19 year old sons car when she found booze under the passenger seat. the ad she took out to sell the car was this: "OLDS 1999 Intrigue. Totally uncool parents who obviously don't love teenage son, selling his car. Only driven for three weeks before snoopy mom who needs to get a life found booze under front seat. $3,700/offer. Call meanest mom on the planet."
i hope i can be the meanest mom, too. i hope that i will remember that it is my job to parent, not befriend, my girls. i mean, i hope with my whole heart our friendship will develop as they grow, but the minute i start worrying that they won't "like" me is the minute that i cease to be an effective guide. i'm the parent - that means it's going to have to be me who teaches them that actions have consequences, small decisions can make a big difference, and that some things are never acceptable. no one else will teach them that. my job is to help The Girls develop into adults who can live in society as a productive, fully engaged & contributing human beings. if they are coddled, protected & given free reign without appropriate discipline, the odds of that happening go way, way down.
so - you go, mean mom! hopefully the fruit of this lesson will continue to be borne throughout your sons life. you did the right, very uncool, thing.
and now i will get down off my soapbox. :)
8 comments:
Mean mom, and wise mom. As a teacher, we wish all moms were like you!
I approve. With the caveat that if too many parents adhere to these practices, a subset of my business may drop off dramatically....
i support mean moms!!!
I saw this on the morning news the other day and while I agree with the premise, it bothered me that the "mean mom" was a self inflicted title. Something is wrong when we call ourselves "mean moms" instead of good moms because it just reinforces the negative image to our kids and the rest of the world. If my kids think I'm mean because I have rules that's one thing, but calling myself mean simply because I'm doing my job, seems self-defeating.
All that to say: you are a good mom! Good moms do what is right regardless of how whether their kids like it or them! :0)
Just thought you might want to know this mom and her son were on Good Morning America yesterday. . . you can watch the segment on their website. She actually wrote the blurb more so that people would not skip over it and take interest in the car than to punish her child. She had no intentions of hurting her kid with it. It's a good segment because it gives you the real story.
I think I was that mean mom - har har. evil grin. Will you be sending me flowers?
this mean mom is on ELLEN tomorrow!! can't wait to "meet" her!
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