I’m a Better Mom Because of My Sister

Shakespeare said, “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ‘em.” And when it comes to motherhood, he could have been talking about my sister and I.

Hope was born a great mother….I, on the other hand, had it thrust upon me. (And not even the great part, just plain motherhood itself).

Hope always knew she wanted to be a mom, she couldn’t wait for it. As for me, I didn’t think about it much, until that is, I found out I was almost into the 2nd trimester of pregnancy.

When we were growing up, Hope was the selfless one. She would offer up her own bottom to spear mine when I got in trouble, and she would always volunteer to babysit our snotty-mouthed nieces and nephews, where I would avoid it at all costs.

Hope loves kids and she has a magical way with them. It’s in her nature: she is patient and kind, playful and so so loving. Her son Liam, who just turned one this past weekend, is one lucky boy.

My son, Lucca, is not so lucky. I don’t have nearly the intuition on parenting as she does. Bed time routines, bath time rituals, funny made-up songs and clever ways to get your kids to eat vegetables do not come easily to me. But after this weekend of watching my sister so happily and effortlessly parent her own son and mine, I have vowed to myself to be better…and thankfully she gave me a few tricks to help.

My favorite is her “trance” trick, used whenever Lucca is doing something he shouldn’t and blatantly ignoring my demand that he stop. I call it a “trick” because it seems like magic to me, and even though it’s so simple, it’s something I would never have dreamed up to do, or even imagine would work.

Here it is:

Sing 1,2,3,4,5, very slowly, up a musical scale and then (this is the coolest part) wave your fingers at their eyes and say, bbbbbbbbbbbbblthththrrrrriiiiiing like a bell.

It works! Lucca is so drawn in, he stops whatever havoc he was reeking and just stares at my face, ready to listen.

It’s almost like hypnotherapy, very cool.

So, this week, I’m changing tactics from trying to rationalize ‘No’ with Lucca (which generally just leads to frustration which leads to screaming and tantrums and more screaming by me) to Trance Counting and the Magical Bbbblththring! technique.

Anybody else got a good trick? My sister lives a long plane ride away and I could definitely use parenting pointers more than just the few times a year I get to visit her. Thank you =)