There’s something so wonderful about having a smart child – and something absolutely terrifying. Intelligence can be used for good, or for evil (I should know. I’ve always been the evil twin.)

And you know what they say: Whatever you gave to your parents as a child, get ready to get it back (and then some) when you have your own children.

That explains why Zoe had the following afternoon/evening:

Around 2 pm, she decided it would be fun to sit in Ella’s carseat and ROCK on the play mat on our floor. Her dad was there when it happened, and since I know I can tend to be the grouchy one about such things, I waited until she got bored (which didn’t take long) and let her know that “we” weren’t going to do that anymore. That Ella’s carseat was made to protect her, so we wanted to make sure we didn’t break it so it could do just that.

She looked at me, very sincerely concerned, and said, “OK, Mommy.” Not long after that, she was back in the carseat, rocking all the way back, and I heard a “click”. That was the canopy dislodging from the seat, which I was able to reconnect, but again I reminded her what the seat was for and asked her NOT to rock in that carseat again, ever. Surely she had just forgotten…

Flash forward to 7 pm, when Bart let me take a 20-minute Epsom soak for my hip – a treat! I came back into the living room refreshed, relaxed and thankful, and guess who was rocking like a crazy person in the carseat? (Hint: It wasn’t Bart) That said, he WAS sitting in the room – while our child was blatantly ignoring my stern warning…

My jaw dropped.

I calmly asked him to stop the show, which he did.

I equally calmly asked Zoe why she was rocking in the carseat. Know what she said?

“Because you weren’t here, Mommy.”

I was floored. Calmly, but clearly irritated now, I asked her what that had to do with anything?!

“Because when you’re not here, you can’t see me, Mom.”

While that may be true, my absence sure didn’t reduce the consequences she got for rocking in that carseat (she had to give up the coveted Hello Kitty jewelry she had JUST gotten that day for being good…Ironic, right?) Ouch. I bet that cured her!

Nope.

Next morning before camp she wanted to open some glow sticks, which I asked her not to do since: a) we were leaving and b) it was daytime, so you couldn’t see them glow anyway. Then I went to work. Later that afternoon she came home from camp and went straight to the glow sticks. Thankfully, Holly had heard my morning conversation with Zoe, and she reminded her that Mommy had asked her NOT to open them. Guess what Zoe said to that?

“But Mommy isn’t here.”

Holly stood her ground, told me later, and I talked to Zoe about it. She looked sheepish (or was that a smirk?), knew she was busted, and hopefully learned – MOMMY IS EVERYWHERE, ALL THE TIME.

We’ll see how that turns out ;)