You guys, real talk here. And I'm drawing upon the wisdom and knowledge of my mom friends to please please please offer me some advice.

My kid -- my sweet, 1-year old, who has never seen the violent world we live in - is mean as shit to my little dog.

So Jack. You know him, maybe even love him. 25lbs of patient laid-backness. A little too hairy, and sometimes takes off for a solo adventure, but mostly a good boy.

Definitely not an aggressive dog, and to my knowledge, has never been anything but chill to Duke. But for no obviously evident reason, Duke just will not stop kicking him or hitting his face.

And Ryan and I have pow-wowed about this a few different times because it's our first parenting adventure in mischief and like, discipline. So naturally our first thought is where in the heck is Duke getting this? I mean, we don't kick our dogs and I'm pretty confident he's not seeing it on Sesame Street. My mother-in-law, Duke's full time nanny, is 100% a dog whisperer who can probably actually even telepathically hear dog thoughts, so I'm pretty sure she's probably not bopping Jack on the nose with a spoon when we're not around. But still, Duke has just made the little dude his target.

Not Ralph and definitely not George. Just Jack.

And Jack just takes it.

So I just spend my life chasing Duke around, reminding him that Jack is a good boy and showing him how to pet nice and to pet soft.

But I have to tell you, a couple of nights ago, Duke was literally chasing Jack around to kick him. Like, Jack would move. Duke would follow. A kick would occur. And Ryan was admonishing him verbally, which did get Duke's attention. But THEN, he looked Ryan square in the eye, resisted breaking eye contact, and kicked Jack again. All while making mischievious eye contact.

So now, the first parenting dilemma of our lives. We're having very boring and adult conversations about whether we believe in spanking. And do we believe in spanking a 1-year old? I'm just not sold on it.

So friends. Tell me my toddler is not a serial killer in the making. I watch a lot of documentaries and I  know that cruelty to animals is kind of a sign. I don't think we're there just yet, but you know. I want to nip this in the bud.