Referee dutee

Is something wrong with my method of upbringing or is something wrong with other people's children? As usual, I am always the perfect one. How can I go wrong..... no way man..... I am always right wan....

How come I don't see other kids/siblings punching each other in public but my kids do that all the time? Or nudging each other till they fall off the chair/seat? And doing this in church, in a Catholic church when we observe the most prim and proper way of worshipping in silence? Oooh... I am trapped between the devil and the deep blue sea. If I don't bring them along with me to church more often, I am not being a good mother. If I bring them every week, one of these days, the whole church is going to see this woman possessed by the devil and giving her two sons, one on her left and one on her right, two tight slaps on the left and right cheeks - in the middle of 'Grant us peace, grant us peace'.

I think it is healthy to allow kids to express themselves. They must be able to tell if they are angry, annoyed, irritated, disgusted, pissed off, (ok, no f word allowed at home)..... They should be able to release those bad 'chi' inside them. So, I let them take it out on each other. It is pure, innocent, child-like display of affections to me. It usually starts with each other poking fun, laughing at each other inane jokes then it progresses to names calling like 'headless chicken', 'moron', etc etc. But soon, one of them is going to get angry, an arm or a leg is bound to cross territories, more arms and more legs and .... that's where my referee whistle will come in. But I don't have a whistle, I use my loudest voice. Tsk, tsk tsk, it is not nice to shout at your kids, auntie. Hey, if I don't do something to stop that pronto, someone is going to get hurt. And I also get to practise my vocals too, good for choir.

*sigh* It is real fun to live with 4 sons. As one can see from the photo above. Only the #2 and #3 fight but overall, they provided each other the best companies. And the best lesson too - you gotta live with people you can't stand and you gotta love them at the same time. Tough but that's life.