Drastic discipline

I'm not sure if its turning 3 or a case of mixing with the wrong crowd, but my little angel has been displaying less than angelic behaviour of late. angry, glaring eyes? check. Arms akimbo complete with one stomping little foot? check. Rude retorts? Check. And I get the full display with a few encores every day. As I investigate the source of this new behaviour, my helper reveals to me that that's what the little girl next door (same age) does, and her parents find it cute! choke!! AND I've been letting her play with said little girl at least 3 times a week and honestly, not because I want to improve her social skills, but because, the very pregnant me just wants an hour on the couch to chill. So given this new discovery, i have to find a solution to this pressing problem. Stop the neighbourly visits? Heart to heart talks with a promise of certain discipline measures? Hubby and I conference and decide on the latter. In anticipation, he bought a cane from the neighbourhood shop. Not that we will really use it i don't think, but, well, to show we really don't condone that sort of behaviour. So hubby brought the cane home, put on the fierecest face he could muster, and prepared to give his, "if this continues..." speech, only to get circumvented by the little one who rushes to him, all beaming with delight, shouting, "you bought me a walking stick daddy!! thank you!!" and prompting frees him from it while she does her impersonation of an old person. Stunned, hubby freezes in shock for a while and eventually wrestles "walking stick" back and tells her it is a cane for naughty children and it will hurt. He thwacks one of her toys in demonstration. little one looks sober for a while, then, spying the handle, bubbles over again, "you bought me a PINK cane daddy! thank you!!" Hard to keep a straight face after.

Sometimes it is tiring to repeat the same thing over and over again, and i hate to hear my voice like a broken record, knowing that 5 mins later, I'm going to have to repeat warning, take action and do it all over again, ad infinitum. I tell myself, better now than next time, when she'd be too big for me to physically move her to a naughty corner and actually expect her to stay there. I find myself on my knees in the wee hours of the night, praying for more grace, more favour, more energy, to deal with the shennenigans that will come with the morning. I'm also reminded that I'm blessed with the time and opportunity to actually witness and correct bad behaviour in a way that other mums may not have the chance to, simply because they are not at home to actually witness it. Many parents see their children at the most 2 hours a day, after work, before the child sleeps, with the best part of the day, spent making ends meet, while their child is subcontracted to the day care, the maid, the grandparents...and we know how "disciplined" they will get under those circumstances. So while the day can be thankless, the job of parenting financially unrewarding, I know that it is the highest honour one can have, to determine how one (or more) life can turn out in the future. So while I really enjoy my various part-time jobs, I know that the best job in the world is still the one that is unpaid, and my priority should be to my one student.