We have a really good dog. She is wonderful with Scout and is super laid back. She NEVER has accidents in the house (unless she tinkles a little from being too excited or scared) and she is just generally a low-maintenance kind of dog. She even helps me out by cleaning up the insanely gooey messes that Scout makes in the 3 foot radius around her highchair. But in all of her helpfulness, she has caused me to make a dumb parenting mistake.

We went out to eat yesterday and sadly, our trusty mutt was not there to lap up the mess. (It's a shame too - she would've really enjoyed all of the cracker shards and bits of turkey and cheese) It's tough to get a 14-month-old to understand that she can freely splat yogurt and throw noodles all over the floor at home, but not when we're eating out. I realized that I probably should have been encouraging Scout NOT to lob fistfuls of scrambled eggs across the room all this time. Maybe I should be telling her no while putting on my most serious face....instead of giggling with her when she nails the dog in the heap with a half-chewed clump of toast. Oops. But would it have done any good? Do kids her age toss food about no matter how much a parent tries to discourage it? I'm not sure I can reverse the course we're on. I think suddenly putting my foot down and telling her that she can't have a one-man (er...one-baby) food fight at every meal might confuse her. And the dog sure would be disappointed too.

Labels: lazy parenting, the dog