This is what we live with

And I say WE...Bob and I, the girls, and Frank. He refuses to do everything that we asked him to do. He quit football. Twice this week, he has run away and hidden in the neighborhood. Tonight he disappeared from 7-9:30pm because he was told to mow the yard. He was hiding in the back of the minivan most of that time, even though he didn't know that I knew that. Not sure what we are going to do with the boy.

When he ran away tonight, Carlie asked me where he was. I told her "He ran away because he was mad." She asked "Well where is he going to live then?" I replied "He'll come back when he gets tired or hungry. And then he'll have to live with the consequences." She looked at me straight faced and said "Who are the Consequences do I know them???" When I looked at her she busted up laughing and goes "Get it?" Yeah, I got it. LOL.

Discipline in a Modern World

You know when I was a kid, if I wouldn't clean up my room, my Dad would threaten to spank me and that was enough to get me motivated.

However, the world has moved on. Yesterday Carlie and Madi were to clean up the room they share....and it was a PIT. Madi went in there and worked a while, but Carlie wouldn't help her. So finally I told Madi she'd done enough and Carlie would have to finish it herself.

She threw the most awful tantrum. I told her that she wasn't going to get to eat dinner until her room was clean. So she laid in her bedroom floor and screamed "I guess I'll just have to eat alot at breakfast in the morning since I'm not going to get any dinner tonight." and better yet "I guess I'm not going to get to eat until I get in High School." or "I'm going to starve to death."

I went in there and spanked her and that didn't work either.

Finally I heard Frank mutter under his breath "Geeze, if that had been me throwing a fit like that you'd have taken pictures and sent them to everyone." And he's right. I have some SPECTACULAR videos of him throwing tantrums when he was little and some pretty recent pictures of big boy tantrums.

So I got my camera phone out and made a video of Carlie throwing her fit. I told her she had 15 minutes to get the room cleaned up, or I was going to post it on Face Book. That did the trick. She had that room cleaned up in a heartbeat...all the while squalling..."No, don't put it on facebook where everyone can seeeeeeee!!!!"

Ahhhhh....kids these days.

Come and Make Me

Wow. The first three weeks of January were WONDERFUL for Frank. Then, that fourth week, his behavior took a nose dive. He was in trouble all week at school, culminating in him getting into a fight with a little girl for staring at him. He elbowed her, called her names and threw a rock at her (hitting her).

We finally figured out that he was up at night messing around instead of sleeping him. I grounded him to the upstairs bedroom so that I could keep an eye on him. He slept ALL weekend. I also made him sleep there Monday and Tuesday and he once again was good at school.

Then Wednesday night, he had a meltdown with his (male) basketball coach. It's very unusual for him to act up with a man. But they were working on a drill and Frank couldn't get it right. So he got frustrated and sat on the bench and refused to participate. The coach told him "Get your rear back out on the floor." And Frank responded "Come and make me, B!tch!!!"

Bob, being a High School Coach, about had a conniption fit. But Frank apologized to his coach today and his team members. And he did get to play a little in the game. That's the only problem we've had this week.

Wise Mr. Sock

I tried something out this morning with Carlie when she has her fits that my counselor suggested. I made a wise Mr Sock puppet.

She threw a fit because I pulled her hair back out of her face today and she wanted it down. So I got wise Mr Sock puppet out and made him tell her that her hair was beautiful and made him try to eat the sausage she was having for breakfast. She laughed so hard she forgot about her fit. She told me the next time I threw a fit she was going to use it on me. LOL.


Last night the other kids were at a neighbor's house, so I took Carlie with me to the store to buy some bread. She wanted to buy some candy, and I told her No. She said “I think you need to let me win this argument because you are big, and I am little!!!"