I secretly love it

when the girls give daddy a tough time.  Call me mean, but I can't help but do a little tehehe when I hear his voice and attitude change.  As we all know, children are amazing actors.  I have learned that my children are generally their best for others, including daddy.  My girls can hold it together, more often than not, around others in order that they get the greatest amount of "oohs, ahhs", and "oh look how cutes'" as possible.  However, when they are done, it is mommy who suffers the wrath. Mommy is the one who gets screamed at, ran away from, ignored, etc.  Although this is a sign that they are their most comfortable with me, it gets to be unbelievably draining.  I am sure this is how the MOM VOICE was created.  Prior to having my own children I was proud of my teacher voice, but man, the mom voice takes the cake!  Its power over those around is stunning.  That combined with a little middle name and wowie! We have a sure fire way to get a kids attention.  My husband, on the other hand, finds any voice I use, other than my beautiful every day one, to be mean and bordering on yelling (I'm thinking he has never truly heard me yell, I love him for that).  He will often make comments or faces to let me know that he is not on board fully.  Sorry, hubby, but as any one who has spent an entire day with terrorists knows (yes, I believe that toddlers are a form of terrorist) at some point negotiations are futile and the niceties have to give way to other techniques...the mom voice and middle name.  Thus, on Sunday afternoon as I stood by and observed how our daughters were ignoring my husbands requests and continuing on their own merry ways, I smiled and chuckled as I heard him throw away the niceties, change his tone of voice and say, "come on, S. No! You may not do that.  Stop. ugh."  I could have assisted, but that would have been wrong; that would have deprived him of the feeling of defeat at the hands of a toddler.  I'm sure that he doesn't even realize what happened.  I, on the other hand, know.  I know that the girls can defeat him as well as me.  I know this and I secretly enjoy it.  It's good to know that I am not alone.