The coffee table

Alyssa has found a new favorite past time ~ pulling herself up and walking around the coffee table. So, I was at BRU last week and thought I would be a good mommy and buy some plastic "corner softeners" that you but on tables so that kids don't poke their eyes out by falling against the table. Well, I got my $1 worth because the little turkey can pull them off and she thinks that's just a great game.

So I was telling my mom last night that Adam has come to the point where he has now duct tapes all the corner things down so that Alyssa can't pull them off (after we tried using various different types of tape/sticky things). She started telling me that when they were babysitting Friday night it was driving her crazy that Alyssa would do that ~ Alyssa would pull it off, my mom would stick it back on, and Alyssa would crawl right back over and try to pull it off again. My dad has decided that we're going to have our hands full with her because she has such a mind of her own. My mom said that she was considering smack her hands to get her to stop pulling them off.

Now this really bothered me. She said that she decided against smacking her hands (she wouldn't have hit her hard, just tapped her), and I thought "oh good, she realizes that she should not discipline Alyssa until she knows how Adam and I plan on dealing with these situations", but she decided to not do it because she was afraid that Alyssa would be scared of her for the rest of the night. Ugh.

I don't see something like pulling corner thingies (what on earth are they really called?!?!?) as reason to smack a child's hands. I think of saving that for when she's doing things dangerous. Like getting ready to stick a key in an outlet or trying to reach for a hot stove. I don't care that she pulls them off . . . frankly, I think its kind of funny. She's sturdy enough now that I don't really worry about her falling and poking her eye out, I just thought since they were cheap I would get them just to be extra safe.