Bad Mommy Side

Yesterday, I walk into the children's bedroom to find my two and a half year old and almost four year old jumping on Little D's mattress...

Mind you, the mattress has been pulled off the bed and is now on the floor -- which kind of shows the children were listening when I barged into their room 90 seconds ago. I had to offer the motherly warnings about often the fatal, or at a minimum disfiguring, dangers of jumping on the bed. I mean, for pete's sake, they could fall off and bump their head on the bed railings and fall into a coma! Blah, blah, blah.

You know, all those regularly offered motherly warnings.

So, I walk into the children's bedroom to find the two wee-est ones jumping on Little D's toddler bed mattress which is now on the floor and no longer on the frame where it belongs. I give up, shake my head and walk out of the room figuring they are playing together happily, so who am I to break up the party?

However, our very astute and precocious almost nine year old who is trailing after me says, "Mom! You're going to let them jump on that mattress?"

I respond, "They'll be fine. It can't hurt them that badly. It's on the floor, right?"

Nine year old: "Hello! They could fall and get hurt. Remember all the warnings you used to tell me? A coma?"

Okay, she's got me there. I used to be a worry-wart parent, but I am getting better. I consider myself a recovering worry-wart. I digress...

I look at our nine year old and just kind of shrug helplessly. So what does our nine year old do? She emphatically states, "That's it! You're losing it! You've gone to the Bad Mommy Side."

Ummm... okay?! Now there is a Bad Mommy Side?

And here I thought I was just giving my wee ones a chance to explore their physical boundaries or possibly of a good ol' lesson in "cause & effect" (jump & bump?) in a semi-safe environment.

Or perhaps I could justify it as my wee ones having superb problem solving skills. I had previously told they to "stop jumping on the bed". Obviously I had neglected to include "stop jumping on the bed or any part of the bed, including the mattress, which means you should not pull the mattress off the bed frame and put it on the floor..."

(Even if that would be considered creative problem solving.)