setting the standard

Sometimes, as a parent, the best you can hope for is that someone else's kid will do something worse than what your kid just did. That you can go home saying, "At least little Timmy didn't do that." You can pat yourself on the back for being such a great parent and breathe a sigh of relief, all the while knowing that the next time your kid might be the one everyone else is thankful for because he/she made their child look like an angel.
On Saturday night we had a family Christmas party with my mother-in-laws extended family. We see most of them once a year at this party and there are a number of young kids. We have a big potluck dinner and then Santa comes and hands out a few gifts to the kids. As we were heading down the table, filling plates for the kids, I looked over to see Truett sticking his tongue into the newly opened tub of country crock. He couldn't just stick his finger in it. He had to go straight for the tongue. I told him to stop immediately and he looked at me sheepishly and said that he was sorry. I then proceeded to scoop off the top layer of the butter tub with a big spoon and apologize to anyone that was within earshot, especially the people coming next in line. I'm guessing they skipped the rolls.
So yeah, on Saturday night Truett was that kid. All other children were judged by his tongue-in-the-butter measuring stick. And they came out looking like champs.

photo by: drinkerthinker  http://www.flickr.com/photos/drinkerthinker/143153733/