The Naughty Book

When Sophie was a toddler/ pre-schooler, she seemed to always be getting into some sort of trouble.  She drew on her bare chest with permanent markers, cut her own hair, cut holes in her clothes, colored her furniture, scrubbed a variety of random beauty products into her hair, etc.  You get the idea.  Being the sensible parents that we were, we would scold her appropriately and then go and get the camera and take a few photos.  Let's face it, sometimes naughty toddler high jinks are completely hilarious.  

As previously noted, since we were such wise parents, we would always explain that we were taking her picture for "The Naughty Book."  This proved to be highly effective until she was about three years old.  Then one afternoon she came to us with something horrible all over her face and my camera in her hand.  She presented the camera to me, grinned enormously and said, "Here you go, Mum.  I very, very naughty!!"  I expect I took her picture.  It is so important to be consistent when you are a parent.

Now Sophie's younger sister is putting all of our previous kids' antics to shame.  We are certain that her naughtiness is far worse than any naughtiness we've had to contend with in the past.  (Either that or we have simply forgotten how insane toddlers can be.)  So George and I have decided to re-open "The Naughty Book."  Here is one of the most recent entries...

After she had gone missing for about three minutes, I found this little rascal having a ball with my waterproof mascara.  When she saw me coming, she spread it on her face and hair even more furiously.  Best to go out in a blaze of glory, you know.  As you can see, she was seriously displeased when I took away her new toy and scolded her for being so doggone naughty.  (Incidentally "naughty" MUST be pronounced with a British accent.  There is no other way in the Carson household.)  The removal of this mascara, which involved covering her face in a generous layer of Vaseline and then scrubbing with very warm water, did not improve her attitude at all.

‎To sum up, I am stealing a comment from my clever friend Jantz: "You are in big (click) trouble, young lady! (click) Just wait (click) until I post this on (click) Facebook..."

I am the queen of effective discipline, and don't you forget it...or you may just find yourself in my "Naughty Book."