Tiger Mom

Have you heard of the Tiger Mom book? It's basically a memoir of a woman raising kids in a very strict and demanding way. She is very tough on her daughters and demands perfection. I'll admit somedays- I have shades of Tiger Mom. It doesn't help that Lucy is actually exceptionally mature for her age and often lulls me into a false sense of having a much older child. The truth is, she is three. She has the vocabulary of an 8th grader, but she's three. She handles situations with the maturity of a mature three year old.

At dinner last night I think a lady considered calling DCFS on me.

We were at a nice-ish restaurant celebrating our neighbor Katie's birthday. We were seated and I gave Lucy her bag o' crayons to color on the brown paper table cloth. I looked away to hang my purse back on the chair and in that brief moment Lucy scribbled all over the white napkin with the black crayon. I picked it up and pointed to it asking "Is this paper?" She shook her head no- she knew this was going to be trouble. I asked "Do we color on anything besides paper?" She slowly shook her head no. "Well, when the waitress comes back you need to apologize for coloring on her white napkin."

A single gigantic tear rolls down her face. "Mommy, will she be angry?"

Wondering if I'm being a bit hard on her or if she's just working me over. "I don't know, but apologizing is the right thing to do."

I call the hostess over and tell her Lucy has something to tell her. With silent tears streaming down her face she apologizes. The hostess goes all "Oh honey, it's not a big deal. I'm not angry, it's ok." She switches out the napkin for a black one.

Silent tears and the saddest face you've ever seen continue for 10 minutes. The lady at the table next to us spends this entire time with her mouth wide open- giving me dirty looks.

Guess she thought I was a tiger mom.