You're not a Bad Boy...

As we sometimes say about our sweet boy - "He's a clever little dickens, and sometimes, just a d*ck."

Last night, after countless futile attempts at logic and reason, DM says to Jack: "You are not being a good listener. You are being a bad boy." This is not something DM says often AT ALL, mind you, and is completely pointless because Jack then puts on his precious pouty face and bats his giraffe eyelashes and says "You're not mad at me, are you daddy?" and Daddy caves in 2.5 seconds, but it reminded me of a convo my sister and I had with a hair stylist while on "sister date" a little while back:

Sister: Oh I never, ever tell Connor he's a bad boy. I just know it'd come back to bite me in the butt.
Me: Yeah, I really try not to. I know "they" frown upon it. My catch phrases are usually "you're being naughty" or "you are not being a good listener" or "i am very disappointed in your behavior" or at least, "you are not being a good boy"...
(Single, baby-aged) Hair Stylist: [Crickets.]
Me: Yeah, I guess we sound pretty ridiculous. I think we've read too many parenting books and blogs.
Hair Stylist: Yeah, I mean, my parents told us we were being bad all the time. We were. And we turned out alright. It seems like people want to raise a generation of pansies.
Me: Ha! Yeah, that's a good point. I mean, it's not like we're whipping them with a belt, and it's the truth, and it beats what I really want to say, which is, "Stop being a f*cking d*ck!" :)

Kind of puts it in perspective, talking to someone on "the outside." Reminded me of this great article, Perception vs. Reality, by Julie Lay (of I Like Beer and Babies), featured on Scary Mommy.

"you're not mad at me, are you daddy?"
(image from Shrek)