Good Cop, Bad Cop

Last night Harlan found a bag of yogurt melts in her diaper bag. It was 30 minutes before dinner time and I did not want her to spoil her dinner. (She is a VERY picky eater and I try to make her as hungry as possible before dinner so that she will actually eat.) She brought the bag over to MacKay so that he could open it. MacKay looked directly over at me (knowing she didn’t need to eat them) and then said back to Harlan, “Go take them to mommy.”

Really, MacKay? You want me to play the job of “mean mommy?” I promptly told her no and took them away. She threw a little bit of a tantrum, but quickly got over it. She ate her entire dinner last night. (Yay!)

The entire situation made me think. Am I really the “bad cop” of the family? I do put her down for a nap when she doesn’t want to, I make her eat her veggies at lunch and dinner. Does she really have her daddy wrapped around her little finger already? He IS always concerned that she will be mad at him if he makes her do something she doesn’t want to do.

Now, don’t get me wrong, Harlan does have a way to get what she wants. If I give her the evil eye for doing something she doesn’t want to do she will quickly run over to me and give me a kiss. It makes my heart melt. Will I let her do it over and over again? Sometimes. 😉 I can’t possibly play mean mommy all the time. Harlan is just too cute to do that!

I never thought that “bad cop” would be my role. Growing up my dad always played that role (sorry dad) so I just figured MacKay would take it over as well. Maybe as Harlan gets older and we have another kid that will change. But for right now, it is the way it is. And I know that later in life, Harlan will love me more for making her eat that piece of broccoli for dinner that she didn’t want to eat. 🙂

Who plays what role in your family?

P.S. Here are some pics from our weekend. Harlan and Hudson had some fun playing with 3D glasses (or as Harlan calls them “gabba glasses” because she thinks they look like the ones DJ Lance Rock wears)