Semper FI

My friend 'Megan' of E-Harmony fame was a single mother for a handful of years. She has 2 children, hence referred to as Boy and Girl, who are friends with Boy Weasel and Middle Weasel. Watching a single Mom in action did not make me envious of the job. Between work and school nonsense she had very little and precious time to just hang out with the kids. Thus when she was home with them, discipline was not on the top of her to-do list. It was dinner, is your homework done, what school papers do you have for me?, limited time to clean house and hang with her homies, and bed to start all over again in the morning.

Boy and Girl spent a lot of time here at the Weasel Village playing with the Weasels and never gave me a hard time. I run a tight ship, but a fun ship. When they needed extra help with math, I pulled out the chips and cards and taught them Black Jack(this really works with addition facts). They always had fun here and always knew not to cross me or break the rules. There would be consequences. They liked me and respected me. I babysat for them often and they became some real favorites of mine.

But when they went home, they put their Mom through the wringer. With no other reason than they could. They knew she was tired, and that she didn't want to spend the limited time they had together yelling and punishing. They would call her at work about spats they were having (what can she really do from the office?). So after a while she would call me when they were giving her an especially hard time at work and ask me to 'have a talk with them'.

When it would get to this point, I would have to go all R. Lee Ermey all over their little butts. Respect for your mother, siblings need to stick together, etc. I never swore, but used a tone that would make any drill Sergeant proud and they will not soon forget. And got immediate results.

R. Lee Ermey

So one day 'Megan' is in her car with her Boy, while ranting to herself about what a real immature jerk etc, etc, her boss is being(we've all been through this). Her boy pipes up from the back seat. Why don't you just have Mrs. Weasel talk to him, that would straighten him out!

My efforts were not fruitless!