What about socialization?

Mea culpa.
Mea culpa.

Mea maxima... you get the idea.

What is the ultimate failure of any homeschooling parent?

A child who doesn't know the times tables?
Nope.

Delayed reading?

Nah.

Inability to find latitude and longitude on a map?

Nuh-uh.

The correct answer here is "socialization."

As in, failure to properly do so.

It's difficult to admit this, being a long-time, somewhat eclectic, a little bit unschoolerish, periodically panicky homeschooler.

And in all honesty, most of my charges do quite well in the social skills department.

Except for one.

And it's all my fault.

Despite her tender years, my littlest girl doesn't get along well with others. She's too excitable, doesn't listen well to the social cues of her playmates, doesn't understand when someone else just doesn't want to play anymore.

Oh, and she doesn't obey her mother very well, either.

A good friend even told me her littlest was uncomfortable around my baby and that her actions are a little "unbalanced."

Wow, was that ever hard to hear.

Granted, she's still just a toddler...

in human years.

But my sweet little Ivy Rose is a bit of a maniac.

We recently dog sat for good friends of ours. Gil, their 9-year-old Welsh Corgi, played with Ivy a lot. But she just didn't seem to understand when he'd had enough, which led to nipping and general grumpiness.

It's hard to pull a 113-pound just-nipped St. Bernard off a guy who stands about 4 inches high at the shoulder. She was angry and hurt, he was fed-up, and I was sweating.

"Please, Mrs. Lauer, make her stop!"

When said friends dog-sat her, Ivy put to use a skill she mastered last fall: fence jumping. Apparently, she took off over the fence and ran straight toward the neighbor's dog, a sweet labrador retriever. A seeing-eye dog, no less.

I think she likely just wanted to play, but a huge dog barreling at full-speed is a little scary. Believe me, I know. I've been hit by flying St. Bernard a time or two myself.

As my mom recently reminded me, nobody likes the hyper, misbehaving kid. So I've firmed up my resolve and deepened my voice, insisting that Ivy obey me. And there's been a huge improvement.

We have much less barking, and when she does, I can get her to listen to me and stop fairly quickly. We've discovered she's afraid of people, so we've been working on those social skills as well.

Beware, those who enter my abode! You will promptly be handed dog treats and asked to greet my baby, quite a slobberful undertaking.

Our next step will be meeting more dogs and working on intra-species social skills.

But the true test will come later this month when my mom comes to visit.

Will I be able to keep Ivy from knocking Grandma over? Slobbering all over her? Basically, loving her to death?

Will my mom ever visit us again after meeting Ivy for the first time?

I'm keeping my fingers crossed and my pockets full of dog treats.