[matrixone05]

I think we used to. I can look back at my children and as they got older, I realized there were things that I allowed them to gradually get away with (their mouths) that I would have never been allowed to do. I hated being told "Because I said so, when I was a child, so I decided that was the one thing I wouldn't do with my children. I would explain why and all would be well.

Yeah right, I later told all my friends that "I said so" was the ticket. What I did was teach my children the ability to debate, argue and try to find reasons why what I said wasn't the only option.

After one particularly lengthy heated debate with my son, who I was ready to make a toothless teenager, his father said to me..."What in the hell is wrong with you mothers, its like you are afraid of hurting your kids feelings. They don't give a damn about yours. Knock the s**t out of him, end the conversation and move on." What an ephiphany. I didn't realize it before, but he had pretty much hit the nail on the head. I was wishing he had swung that hammer at me years earlier.