It only occurred to me the other day that despite being the drill sergeant in my home, the one who enforces the rules, demands good behaviour and expects everyone to fulfill their responsibilities without fail, my children don’t ‘fear’ me, or, to be more specific, are less inclined to obey me. Instead, whenever I read the riot act to the two older ones for slacking, they look at me warily, but thoroughly unperturbed, and exchange furtive glances which silently seem to say, “there she goes again…”
It is different with their father, however. The irony is that even though he is the more relaxed parent, the one who occasionally allows them to get away with murder, so to speak, and who often finds humour in their misbehaviour and intervenes once in a while when I go at them for mistakes made or conveniently forgotten chores, his word is law. He only needs to say something once, and it is speedily and strictly obeyed. As for me, I sometimes have to repeat an instruction several times for it to stick. Having observed this, and feeling greatly offended and frustrated by this state of affairs, I recently asked him why our children react this differently towards us.
