Tuesday Tinkerings

The business of being grown up is cut-throat hard core, I say.

The business of parenting, even tougher.

I refuse to apologize for being the parent in this household. Particularly when I do not make mistakes, when I am simply setting boundaries and sticking them. "Bad Mom" and "You are so mean" now glide off of me like water on a birds feather.

With the help of an amazing child psychologist who has the testosterone to whip my child into submission with a mere inflection of his voice, I will be the Alpha Mom. I am the Alpha Mom and my child now knows it.

I am bossy and in charge - I know this is something I must own in every fiber of my being. All the time.

"I Hate Dr. S, I will never go back! You can't make me!" is music to my ears. I know its scary to hear that things aren't okay the way they are, that I am the parent, the one in charge, and that you will lose some privileges and power in this exchange. In the end though, you'll be much happier for it my sweet child.

This is my issue (and in part, Wood's, too) - my personal experience with other people being physically aggressive toward me, taking my power, controlling me. I know it and I have been fighting, albeit quite silently, against fighting at home. In the end, it has made us fight more.

Demon fighting, still, I am. Difference now is, I've never been less afraid of the battle.

The privilege of being a grown up and a parent is on the line.