Dignity Please, Mom.

Teenagers. Caroline just let me know today how she feels about them.

"Mom, you know what? I don't like being around teenagers. Sometimes when the high schoolers walk through our school at the end of the day on the way to the buses, they look at me and the other elementary schoolers and say, 'Awwww, how cute!'.

"That's sweet!"

"No, it isn't!"

"Why not? You don't like it when they compliment you?"

"Mother, I AM NOT A HAMSTER."

But Then I'd Have Bigger Problems To Worry About

Caroline and I were in the commissary, walking down the cereal aisle, when I noticed that she had a black smudge on her nose.

What did I do? What all mothers since the beginning of time have done, and what all kids since the beginning of time have hated.

I licked my fingers and used them to wipe her face.

Don't knock it; your mom did it, and you've done it to your kids. But did you or your kids snap back the way Caroline did, much to the amusement of passersby?

"Ewww! Mom! I wish I was a cat! Then you'd have to lick my butt and THAT would teach you!"

No, probably not.