One of the most wonderful things that I enjoy doing is "people watching." Sometimes it can really make my day. I love to watch how people interact with each other.

In many ways it gives you a window to the inside of their life. Watching how the children act towards their parents and watching how the parents act or react to them or their behaviors.

Today we got our second dusting of snow this year. All the children were excited and I had a blast watching them try to make a snowman with this little bit of snow.

Of course they didn't get very far with making any snowman, and it wasn't long until they just gave up and played tag in the snow, laying down now and then to create snow angels and getting their clothing covered with wet snow and dirt from the grass.

I fixed some hot cocoa for the bunch in my yard and handed out some whipped cream for the top. It was the perfect end for a lazy Sunday afternoon.

When I came inside I got a call from my neighbor down the road. She was yelling at her kids for getting wet and dirty, shouting so loud that I held the phone away from my ear.

Then she started on me on how could I allow the girls to play outside and get all muddy. When she calmed down I told her that we were all outside and that everyone had snow pants and hats and gloves. I did not see the harm in letting them play while I took down the remaining Christmas decorations.

I asked her if her children were in the room with her now. She told me yes. Then I let her know that I did not like her tone of voice and that I was not her child to reprimand. Then I also said that it was no big deal if she wanted me to toss her daughter's snow pants in with my daughter's, to send them on down.

I felt so sad for the girls because they had just had such a good time and enjoyed themselves so much, just to go home and end up being screamed at by their mom. To me this is the ultimate act of bad parenting. She did not think of her girls and how they felt. She reacted to the dirt on their snow pants.

That made me want to get parents thinking about how they act or react to their children. Sometimes we have a million other things on our minds and we just snap and react to a situation, instead of saying lets get the dirty, wet snow pants off and in the wash, which would have been a good thing to just do.

It is now snowing outside and I know that tomorrow the kids will be begging to run out and play and build a real snowman and have a real snowball fight.

However, I must say that I will allow my daughter to have the time of her life but I will not allow her little girl friends to play out without their mother coming down to supervise them herself.

My daughter and her two friends are like the three musketeers. They are always together and the sound that radiates from them is joy and laughter.

They do make sound decisions and so far so good on playing well and not getting hurt or into trouble. I think a week or so of having her daughters home with her and not allowing them to play out with my Angela just might teach their mommy to rethink her anger.

What I know is her attitude has caused me to rethink my generosity in baby sitting and making decisions without their mom there to supervise them.