John has once again outstmarted me.

In two restaurants during our recent vacation trip to Galveston, John tested me past my good-natured mom endurance.

Sometimes, when he senses a weakness (in public!), he tries to get away with stuff that he knows is not the plan.

Twice, two different days, I found myself saying some jibberish like, “you can decide to sit here nicely like you know how to do, or we can go outside and I will give you five swats…..”.

(Yeah, right, Mom!  That will be great moments in intervention parenting.)

Once we got home, and the subject of good choices came up, John looked me dead in the eye and said something about “getting 100 swats”.

So back to the teachable moment of me saying how sad Mom was in the restaurants, that “you tested me to see if you could get away with stuff, to see if I still loved you enough to keep the same rules”….

It was a stalemate.

He changed the subject.

And, by the way, that divided-in-half heart represents the advice I received long ago from Alma Liotta, OTR, “Take half of your heart, your energy, your everything and do all you can for your child.   Then, take the other half and love him just as he is.”   

Peace be with us,

Gayle