Will I Be Able to Whip Him Into Shape Before He Gets Taller Than Me?
That's a very good question. He's past boob height now. Unless the girls have just dropped lately. Ha ha.
It will not be long at all before he's taller than me.
And he's only 10!
He's very grounded, as I referenced before.
We were dealing with his anger problems, his inability to hold his shit together some days (it doesn't make sense, other days he's just fine and it would take some catastrophe to actually throw him into a tantrum), and his smart ass mouth. Which has been in full force lately.
We've stopped talking to him on occasion when he can not talk politely to us. I will not be talked to like I'm stupid, least of all talked to that way by my own ten year old son.
When he was a baby, he used to bite. I guess I shouldn't say it that way, cause we actually managed to nip that in the bud. He did it a few times, and then I started swatting him (NOT HARD) on the mouth when he did it. It was enough force to make him pay attention and even though I am largely not a physical punishment type person, it sure seemed to work.
I can't do that now. It doesn't make sense to me is what I mean I guess. It was a physical punishment for a physical thing with the biting.
So maybe if he gets all smart mouthy on us, we should not let him talk? LOL. Sure.
But none of that is why he is grounded.
He committed a much larger "sin" 2 Wednesdays back now.
I happened to walk past his door at 9:41 that night, more than half an hour after lights off, and he should have been asleep.
What I see instead is a light emanating across his tiny innocent looking face.
For a minute I was confused, like maybe he was trying to read in bed, a "sin" which I committed many times as a kid. I would have been happier had he been "sneaking" reading time.
Then the fog cleared in my brain and I realized that the light was from his Gameboy SP which I bought him for his birthday.
I can't believe he actually made me sorry that I bought it. If he'd had his old Gameboy there would have been no light for him to play by, but instead he was playing long after bed time.
And how knows how many times he's done this?
I was so angry that I went in there, told him to give me the Gameboy, told him I hoped it was worth it, cause he was so grounded that I didn't even know how grounded he was yet.
This is the third time he's "stolen" game time when he should know better.
I asked him what he thought we should do, and instead of the whole reverse psychology bit, he wanted to go super easy on himself. Those people LIE when they say that kids will choose a worse punishment given the choice.
The end result?
He's grounded for a month from video games and consequently going to his friend's house to play video games.
And he's asked us to keep the Gameboy in our room when he isn't playing it, so that he won't be tempted.
I will give him that, I even admire that he can admit that he can't control himself.
Except that's a little scary. It's ONLY a video game and perhaps I just don't understand the draw, but it's like heroin to him.
I told him we can hold on to it but that at some point when he is older, he will have to take responsibility for it, much like any older kid or adult who have to make choices and accept the consequences.
I hope that it'll teach him something, cause he merely stated that when he was older and an "adult" he could play video games for 12 hours if he wanted to.
I responded that yes, he could, but that when he is an adult he may have to realize that he shouldn't play them for 12 hours sometimes.
I think we had a good talk, and it really has been surprisingly easy to uphold this grounding. Not that we've gone back on our word on groundings before, but I expected, what with his anger problems lately that every day would be a battle. Instead he's been better then he was before.
Makes me wonder how much of an influence the video games have on him.
He's been a lot calmer, or at least a lot less angry. He KNOWS that he screwed up and he's taking it quite well.
He's got about a week and a half down of the grounding period, so maybe the rest of the time will go just as well. We'll see.
Meanwhile, my head is being weird and my throat is being dry. If I'm getting sick I'm going to kill whoever made me sick.
It will not be long at all before he's taller than me.
And he's only 10!
He's very grounded, as I referenced before.
We were dealing with his anger problems, his inability to hold his shit together some days (it doesn't make sense, other days he's just fine and it would take some catastrophe to actually throw him into a tantrum), and his smart ass mouth. Which has been in full force lately.
We've stopped talking to him on occasion when he can not talk politely to us. I will not be talked to like I'm stupid, least of all talked to that way by my own ten year old son.
When he was a baby, he used to bite. I guess I shouldn't say it that way, cause we actually managed to nip that in the bud. He did it a few times, and then I started swatting him (NOT HARD) on the mouth when he did it. It was enough force to make him pay attention and even though I am largely not a physical punishment type person, it sure seemed to work.
I can't do that now. It doesn't make sense to me is what I mean I guess. It was a physical punishment for a physical thing with the biting.
So maybe if he gets all smart mouthy on us, we should not let him talk? LOL. Sure.
But none of that is why he is grounded.
He committed a much larger "sin" 2 Wednesdays back now.
I happened to walk past his door at 9:41 that night, more than half an hour after lights off, and he should have been asleep.
What I see instead is a light emanating across his tiny innocent looking face.
For a minute I was confused, like maybe he was trying to read in bed, a "sin" which I committed many times as a kid. I would have been happier had he been "sneaking" reading time.
Then the fog cleared in my brain and I realized that the light was from his Gameboy SP which I bought him for his birthday.
I can't believe he actually made me sorry that I bought it. If he'd had his old Gameboy there would have been no light for him to play by, but instead he was playing long after bed time.
And how knows how many times he's done this?
I was so angry that I went in there, told him to give me the Gameboy, told him I hoped it was worth it, cause he was so grounded that I didn't even know how grounded he was yet.
This is the third time he's "stolen" game time when he should know better.
I asked him what he thought we should do, and instead of the whole reverse psychology bit, he wanted to go super easy on himself. Those people LIE when they say that kids will choose a worse punishment given the choice.
The end result?
He's grounded for a month from video games and consequently going to his friend's house to play video games.
And he's asked us to keep the Gameboy in our room when he isn't playing it, so that he won't be tempted.
I will give him that, I even admire that he can admit that he can't control himself.
Except that's a little scary. It's ONLY a video game and perhaps I just don't understand the draw, but it's like heroin to him.
I told him we can hold on to it but that at some point when he is older, he will have to take responsibility for it, much like any older kid or adult who have to make choices and accept the consequences.
I hope that it'll teach him something, cause he merely stated that when he was older and an "adult" he could play video games for 12 hours if he wanted to.
I responded that yes, he could, but that when he is an adult he may have to realize that he shouldn't play them for 12 hours sometimes.
I think we had a good talk, and it really has been surprisingly easy to uphold this grounding. Not that we've gone back on our word on groundings before, but I expected, what with his anger problems lately that every day would be a battle. Instead he's been better then he was before.
Makes me wonder how much of an influence the video games have on him.
He's been a lot calmer, or at least a lot less angry. He KNOWS that he screwed up and he's taking it quite well.
He's got about a week and a half down of the grounding period, so maybe the rest of the time will go just as well. We'll see.
Meanwhile, my head is being weird and my throat is being dry. If I'm getting sick I'm going to kill whoever made me sick.
Comments
This is the third time, and instead of punishing him by checking it out and in, he WANTS us to.
No control, the kid has no control.
*shakes head*