You May Have Seen a Smother Dearest If.....

You may have seen a mother dearest if....

1.) You encounter a mother who doesn't let her child, young or old, out of her sight
2.) You are at the pool, and a mother perches in one spot of the baby pool and doesn't allow her child to leave that single spot
3.) You are asking the child, again, young or OLD, a question and smother answers for them, every single time
4.) You note that the mother speaks in a babyish voice to their child; this is especially bad when said child is older
5.) Smother won't allow their child to play freely with your child
6.) This one is more pertinent to teenage children, this is when a mother refuses to see the bad in their own child, and terms your child a bad influence, when their child is in reality behind the shenanigans.

The above are only a few earmark traits of a "Smother Dearest". I encountered a Smother at the baby pool early in the week. She could not have been less pleasant. Whenever I attempted to make polite conversation with her she gave me a nasty, disinterested look and barely replied. She perched on a single spot of the baby pool and wanted her 2 yr old boy to simply stay right there. The worst however was the obvious way she didn't want Bella to play with her little boy, yet, when the little boy decided it was ok to start smacking Bella, she turned a blind eye and said nothing. You better believe if Bella started slapping around another child I would be on her like white on rice....you know I don't actually know what that saying means...weird.

Now fast-forward 2 or 3 days later, Smother hasn't been at the pool for a couple days. Jeneva and I took Bella to the pool on Thursday and we were minding our own business in the baby pool with Bella, when smother entered the pool. I pointed her out to Jeneva so she would know when the hatefulness happened, that this was indeed the same smother...But you know what happened? No, you don't you know it all! She was very nice, I don't know if it was the fact that she was there with friends to she felt more comfortable or what, but she let her little "angel" play and share toys with Bella, and in a turn of events that I simply can't understand, or explain, she complimented my bathing suit, style and color.....*cue twilight zone music*

I suppose the moral of this story might be that sometimes people are having a bad day and maybe don't realize how ungracious they are being to others. In my case I generally know when I've turned on the ungracious attitude, and am working through that. The Holy Spirit kind of pinches me to get my attention and I realize that I might not be acting in a Christ like manner. Hopefully I can just keep getting better about that! But either way, a Smother is a Smother and now you know how to spot one!