I am writing this post in pure frustration. My oldest son, Tiger, is driving me insane these days. I constantly get e-mails about him being rude and disrespectful, not following directions, and "forgetting" to turn in assignments. Yesterday, there was no school, but they still had their Monday chores. I let them play all day after the dentist (which went fine, by the way) because it was their day off, but at 4pm, I reminded them that they needed to start their chores like any other day. Bucket had room cleaning, putting away laundry, and litter box. (They all have room cleaning and laundry Monday-Friday, since I'm not on a regular laundry schedule, I just wash stuff as it gets dirty.) Missy had her room/laundry, plus the living room. Tiger had the bedroom and dumping the garbage.
Our garbage men are on our street at the crack of dawn. Literally. Every Tuesday morning, I am wakened by the sound of men laughing and cracking jokes at 5:30am and the air brakes of the garbage truck. Not my favorite way to be woken up, but at least it's not on Saturday. I was listening to them this morning and realized that they didn't brake in front of my house. I leaped out of bed, ran to the front window, and saw...NOTHING. No garbage cans in front of my house. They passed my house and went down to the next. My mouth was hanging open. I ran to the chore chart, noticed that it was Tiger who had not done his chore, and barged into his room and woke him up.
"You forgot to put out the garbage!" I yelled at him.
"Sorry Mom" he mumbled.
"Tiger, we only get one garbage day a week. That crap has to sit and fester for another week!"
"Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz." was the reply.
So here are my ideas of discipline.
1) Making him write sentences "It is my job to dump the garbage on Monday nights" 25 times, possibly more.
2) Beat the living snot out of him.
3) Put him in charge of all things garbage. Make him my personal garbage boy. Eat, live and breathe garbage. Not only put him in charge of dumping the garbage from the side of the house, but responsible for every garbage can inside the house, putting in new garbage bag liners, plus pulling the garbage cans in, plus recycling.
What would YOU do?
5 comments:
I'd go with option #3. The natural consequence of forgetting to take out the trash means do all things garbage.
Do you rotate your chores? I've found that giving them a chore and making it theirs and not switching them helps. They know what they have to do, how to do it, and are good at it. We do switch up every 6 months or so, but they end up switching with their brothers so they can have their old chores back LOL.
Bummer about the trash sitting there another week. At least it isn't summer :)
How old is he? There is a book entitled "Creative Correction" you might want to check out.
I would take away a favorite priveledge - video game, favorite show, etc. Take it away for a time period you know you can stick with and won't give into. I would take it away until he took out the trash the next week.
By the way, love the milk tip - do I use the same amount of powdered milk that I do liquid in a recipe?
Sarah Mae, I will definitely find that book. I bet it's on Amazon! Tiger is going to be 12 in April. His favorite two excuses are "I forgot" and "I don't know." Not aggressively in your face disobedient, but disobedience nonetheless. Sigh.
Regarding the milk, follow the directions on the box of powdered milk. If the recipe calls for 1 cup of milk, figure out how to make 1 cup with the powdered milk, and use accordingly.
Kelly, I am leaning toward that choice also (of course, I do love reading books, so I'm following Sarah Mae's advice also by ordering the book, because this won't be the only time I have issues, I'm sure.)
We don't rotate chores much. Everyone is responsible for their own room and laundry. Everyone has one night per week cleaning up the living room because that's where everyone seems to leave their shoes, socks and backpacks. Plus my little one has autism, so changing anything on him freaks him out, even if it's in his favor!
Thanks for the ideas. I feel like what I'm doing isn't working, so I'm rattling my brain. My goal with Tiger is:
1) Obeying me without question or argument.
2) Raising a boy to become a man and eventually someone's husband!
3) Being a self starter. Not waiting on me to tell him what to do, but just getting up and doing it.
I agree #3 is best, but #2 would have been tempting, lol. My son is 10 and he forgets too. I need to toughen up too.
I agree #3 is best, but #2 would have been tempting, lol. My son is 10 and he forgets too. I need to toughen up too.
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