Well, I rocked “fun parent” status on Saturday, with
trips to both the splash park and Chuck E Cheese (the latter being at 2pm on a
Saturday, take THAT, sanity). We also had lunch at McD’s with my sister who
managed to be … well, fine actually. It was a good visit and I haven’t seen her
in at least a year and a half due to her guano craziness. But it was fine. I
even met her equally nutso boyfriend that she curses about on facebook incessantly,
and he was perfectly respectful (also respectfully declined coming with us to
lunch, which I appreciated). We also saw my mom and bought pjs for Henry and
shoes for Spencer … look, shoes for Spencer were not on the list but he kept
insisting on wearing these sandals where the soles had split and the insides
were coming out and I had had it. So I bought him new sandals (even though he
had perfectly good other sandals at home) and had the cashier throw those old
ones away. Done and done.
I don’t know how it’s already Wednesday and I feel like
there’s so much to say but if I wait to split posts, will it ever get said? I
might should probably bullet this. Will I? Jury’s out.
Yesterday Spencer got in trouble at summer daycare, and
it was a stupid little thing – he and a friend were “throwing cars” (in
quotations because he said they were just doing cool tricks but I informed him
that if the car leaves the safety of your hand, it’s now being thrown) and she
told him to stop so he doesn’t hurt the other kids and he wouldn’t. It’s a
small thing, but it’s a nearly every day thing with him there. Spencer has been
there since he was 6 months old, and he was SUCH AN EASY CHILD that now that he’s
school age with opinions and attitude, she doesn’t quite know what to do with
him. So anyhow, it was a small thing but it was the proverbial straw on the
camel’s back so he got in relatively big trouble. No kindle, no Wii games, no
watching daddy play computer games, no tv before bed. Nothing F.U.N. or
S.P.E.C.I.A.L.
So there was crying but then he got over it and we did
our grocery shopping. When we shop and they are good, we stop at the bakery for
cookies. Always. It doesn’t matter if it’s 30 minutes till dinner, whatever.
The only times they don’t is if we’re running in for just a couple things or if
they have not been good directly before grocery trip (in which case it’s
usually both of them). But this time … well, you know where this is going
right? Henry got his cookie. Spencer did not.
Honestly, I was kind of proud of Spencer and how he
handled his extreme disappointment. And he was extremely disappointed. He stood
there, head hung low, eyes watching Henry eat his sprinkle cookie, and just
quietly cried. No tantrum, no crazy indignation. He knew he was being punished,
and that maybe he kind of deserved it. He was upset for quite a while, but he
finally got over it and moved on with his evening. This happened again at bedtime
when he realized (apparently he forgot) that he would miss his show he again
did the pitiful silent cry while he read instead of enjoying Tumble Leaf.
“Mom, Tita is never going to tell you anything ever
again.”
“Why is that?”
“Because I’m never going to do it again.”
Yeah, we’ll see. Anyhow, so hopefully he learned his
lesson and can get things together so it can be a happy time at daycare.





2 comments:
The times I have had to punish Ezra and it seems like he's actually GETTING IT, oh, it's hard (for me). It seems to resonate and I just hooooope that it's a lesson learned.
One time, Sophie refused to do a hearing test at the ENT and threw an ever-loving holy fit about it. So I bribed her with a McDonald's milkshake if she would take the test. Then, I took the test, so she would see it was no big deal. Still no go. So afterwards, I drove to McDonalds, went through the drive-thru, got myself a milkshake for taking the test, and didn't get her one. She wailed and cried and hated me so bad and my mother was appalled and thought I'd taken that too far. But six months later, at her next hearing test, without me having said one single thing about what happened last time or that I really needed her to take it this time, nothing, she was eager to take the test, did great, and afterwards, timidly asked me if she had earned a milkshake. Yep. Score one for mom! I bet Spencer won't forget your cookie lesson either!
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