I must be a glutton for punishment...

As many of you know over many posts of mine, I have 3 sister in laws. One who is overbearing, one who is schizophrenic(yes, medically diagnosed schizophrenic) and the 3rd. Well, for the most part shes nice, sometimes naive and clueless,for the most part she means well though and is the one out of the three that I like the most.

However her youngest son is Satan incarnate. I love children, and I feel awful that everytime I see that kid coming I really dread it. He's bad..and SIL doesn't believe in spanking (which is her right) but she doesn't use any form of discipline really, I do think that kid needs a good stick across his rear though. It never hurt me any. I don't think that she should see it my way, however I do think that she should see her kid is a holy terror. That child will find the worst thing to be doing at any given moment, and that's what he's doing.

For example, overbearing SIL and Clueless SIL came over with their families on Sat, because overbearing SIL was up from downstate visiting. In the span of 3 hours this 4 yr old managed to punch his father in the jewels, spin poor Mr Lickys wheel until he bounced around in it, opened 3 different bottled waters before he had the right one, squeezed 2 juice boxes on the floor, bit his father in the nipple and peed his pants on my kitchen chair. Her excuse? "I think he's a little cranky because he's tired." That kid wasn't tired believe me, he was bouncing off the freakin walls from the cotton candy, slushies, caramel apple, etc that he had at the circus a little earlier in the afternoon. Plus, he's like that EVERY day. I cringe when I see him coming.

So yesterday she asked if I would babysit. The way she talked, it sounded like I was going to be babysitting her older boy, so right off I said, "Sure.." She gets here this afternoon and I see it's Little Mr Terror I have to watch. It was an interesting day to say the least. Now for the most part, if I tell him to stop doing something, he does fear me enough to stop doing whatever it is, but he goes right to doing something different but equally rotten. So all day was me going from one thing to the next telling him to "stop doing this, or stop doing that" I had activities for us to do, thinking it might keep him busy, but he refused to do any of them, he didn't want to watch his favorite shows, etc nothing. So when she came to pick him up today, SIL asked if I could watch both boys on Sat, BIL has a work social dinner drinks and dancing from 5pm to 11pm. Now if I asked this particular SIL to do me a favor, she would do whatever it was if it's within her ability to do it, so I felt obligated to say yes. I just wish she would realize that her kid is rotten and needs to have some behavior modifications. Instead she makes excuses for him...there are times when you can tell she's embarassed by his behavior but doesn't do anything about it, and gets upset if someone else steps in (even if it's her husband). So I think I am going to make sure I have some Smirnoff for after they leave, I think I may need it...

heck, maybe it would be better if I had some Smirnoff BEFORE they came over...lol

I dont care how much I dearly love someone. If their kid is a brat, I tell them so, and I refuse to keep them unless I have permission to whip their asses.

thats the bottom line. when you walk in my HOME, amoungst MY stuff, you go by MY rules or you suffer the concequenses.

All I can say is I wish you luck.

Well it's tonight....I hope I don't lose my sanity before the evening is over...

I would tell her until she places the rod of discipline on the backside of misbehavior that you aren't babysitting. Also, thats not normal 4yo behavior, she may look into a shrink

I hope it goes well! Good luck to you. Im with Chelle.. if I don't have the right to discipline.. I don't keep them.

I often overstep the bounds with some of my friends children but I always tell them what happened. how I handled it and what the outcome was. None of the kids who come to my house have a problem listening to me and they always want to come back. So I figure even when it's been a bad day.. and there are a lot.. apparently they don't mind. They know the rules and the consequences and I've never had a parent say their kids can't come back.. Heck.. I think they are happy for the help..

I survived.. I planned activities for the whole evening. He did still have some bad behavior but not nearly as much as he usually does because I kept them busy with painting and making brownies and other activities. I was exhausted though...lol They dropped them off here at 5pm and came back at about midnight...the 4 yr old was still up, he refused to go to sleep. Maybe he conked out when he got home and they got a good nights sleep.

KellyM wrote:the 4 yr old was still up, he refused to go to sleep. Maybe he conked out when he got home and they got a good nights sleep.

Isn't this what always happens?

Yeah..no big deal..I didn't expect him to go to sleep anyway. The 8 yr old went to sleep on his own though.