I am "that" mom

Do you remember life without kids? Do you remember saying, “I will never let my kids…..” or “my child will not….”? Do you remember the first time you caught yourself doing the exact thing you swore you never would with your kids? I don’t remember the first time, but every now and then it comes back to me that there are dozens of things that my kids do that I just knew would never happen.
1. Happy Meals – I swore that I would break the junk food cycle with my kids and I would raise healthy eaters. If they got a Happy Meal, it would be with milk and apples. My kids were very rarely going to have candy or cookies and coke was out of the question. Reality – when you are stuck with a two year old (or three year old or 30 year old) you will do whatever it takes to shut them up or bribe them. “K, you can have the cookie when you eat three bites of your dinner.” “K, you can have daddy’s coke but you have to use your inside voice.” “R, you can get ice cream on your way home from the dump.” I also had a help in breaking this one because grandparents just think it’s absolutely adorable to give your children all the things they didn’t give you when your were a baby (ie: chocolate pudding at 7 months old, ice cream at 6 months old).
2. My children will never scream and yell at me in Wal-Mart. What kind of parent lets their child do that?? Answer – me. When you are not a parent you do not understand. Once you have a toddler you become deaf to many things including full out screaming in Wal-Mart. I truly believe that is why the store is so big and loud anyway, to drown out all the kids who are having meltdowns in the toy aisle (or candy aisle). On more than one occasion, K has decided that he now has the right to talk back to me or let me know (at about 120 dB) that he needs something. Now, usually this takes place at home and I can discipline him appropriately and immediately, but when you are out of the house you must be careful. There are people out there who think that even scolding your child is a form of abuse (and I am not exaggerating). That is a totally different post. So, when at Wal-Mart, I do what I swore I would never do. I ignore my child’s screaming fit, to a point, and keep going. I can feel the eyes watching, but hope that most of them are mothers who are looking at me and remembering when they last had a screaming 2 year old in their shopping cart.

These are just my top two. My question to you is, what are the things you swore you would never do, but did? Also, what do you catch yourself saying that made you realize that you had turned into your mom or dad? Mine is, “what is your major malfunction??” (love you mom!)