Mothering Mayhem: Life with the Wild Boys

As has been previously outlined, the cop and I are not youngsters.  Don't get me wrong, we aren't ancient.  We just opted to do the whole "responsible" thing where you get married, have steady employment, get a house, and then procreate.  It worked for us.  I'm not saying it's necessary, but knowing that half of my kids genetics would come from a man who honestly believes that it's perfectly reasonable for one piece of kitchen cutlery to cost the same as a month of daycare for a preschooler it just seemed risky to bring them into the world before we could afford them. Being older parents has afforded us lots of opportunities, and we have a blast.  But it can also be humbling.  Such as my encounter with the Walmart fabric clerk.  While buying patterns and fabric (for my mother to sew for me, because Lord knows I don't have those skills) and attempting to maintain some semblance of control over my two wild children in the cart, I was asked by the clerk...

Let's spend a little time examining public disciplining of children, shall we? Just jump right in to a hotbed of debate and open the door to immense judgment and criticism? Yes, yes I believe we shall. It would seem the people with the strongest beliefs about discipline are not actually parents.  That's right, we're on to you all. With your haughty looks and sneers of disapproval. That's why every parent on earth ignores you or (in my case) openly laughs at you.  Because non parents have NO idea. But I'm going to do my best to enlighten you a wee little bit.  Picture it: Old Navy.  You have run inside for a quick, yes quick, quest to find Hawaiian shirts for  three and five year old boys. Why? Because during the one pick up you actually made from daycare last week when you weren't relying on the kindness of EVERYONE else on the emergency card due to last minute overtime demands, you were informed you had to bring something for a bake sale Tuesday, money...