Tuesday, July 12, 2005

How come I always have to play the "bad cop"

After a recent phone conversation with my best friend, I realized I'm not the only mother always playing the "bad cop." I thought because my husband was out-of-town all the time, the responsibilities of rule-enforcement and punishment fell on me. Apparently, when you take on the role of mother, you get to wear all of the hats.

I'd been having trouble getting my daughter to sleep in her own bed. My husband adores her attention when he's home between travels and often spoils her. Not wanting to be the bad guy, I compromised with my husband. I put a sleeping bag & pillow in our room for our daughter. If she awoke in the night, she'd come lay on her "palette." She felt secure and we still had the bed to ourselves. But, sometimes compromise backfires and you have to play the bad cop. Now that my husband is gone again, I am left to hear our daughter cry herself to sleep or I'm reduced to petty bribes of grape-flavored chapstick or glitter nail polish if she'll please, please, please sleep in her own bed the whole night.
So far, she's slept in her own bed for over a week.
Maybe when my hubby gets home again, I can try out a different hat...;-)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Stay strong Kelley...you can do it! Why don't you go out of town and give him a taste of what it's like! (hey, we can get rooms and The Beverly Hills Hotel and they have a pool too!)
Anonymous Mary

Kelley said...

Thanks, Anonymous Mary, I think I'll take you up on that!! Beverly Hills Hotel-here I come...