A Lesson Learned......Maybe

Ever have one of those days/weeks/years when your kids drive you insane with the fighting over absolutely STUPID stuff? Hmmm, no? Well then shove off you perfect parent cuz around these parts we get REAL and that can get a tad bit ugly.

So be prepared. You have been warned. Please feel free to turn away while you still can. Go Google 'Perfect Children' and you will be safe.

Now on to the real topic. Lessons learned. If you know anything about us, then you can assume that any lessons learned around here are learned the hard way. Plus, they NEVER are learned after just one lesson. Oh no, it takes many, many repeats of the lessons to finally sink into their thick little skulls (that is if they ever learn it at all....I have my doubts).

A while back I posted how the two little guys would not put on warm gear to ride along to take Levi to school. I let them freeze hoping that the natural consequences of their stubborn ways would make an impact. It did, for a few days. Since then we have had at least once-a-week repeats with at least one child. The funny thing is it is usually just one of them and the other one then proceeds to point out the errors of their ways, all knowingly and smug. This absolutely does not prevent them from doing the same bone-headed thing on another day. Go figure! Ahren actually walked out to the car last week in seventeen degree weather with no shoes or socks on and refused to admit the cement was cold. Well OK then. It's not MY feet that are cold. Was it wrong that it took me reeeaalllly long to find my keys and unlock the car doors while he stood on the 'not cold' cement?

So today Seth was in a very negative mood. He gets that way when he is tired. In fact, he ended up taking a 2 1/2 hour nap, which he obviously needed very much. One thing after another set him off. Lots of whining, angry words and pouting over minor things. Time out was ineffective (heck, with most RAD kiddos timeouts are only for us, the parents, to cool off. It does little to fix the kid's issue at hand) I distracted him, acted silly, made sure he wasn't hungry, talked and held him, all the normal things to try and work him out of this 'mood'. It resulted in 'no change' meaning the ugly behavior continued unabated.

Then, while Chris was running errands (special note here: the bad behaviors are always WAY worse when Daddy is not here. They try much harder to hold it together in front of their Dad, but for Mom it all hangs out) Seth blew his lid because Ahren told him, and I quote, 'You can't go in the kitchen'. Oh holy bejeebers you would have thought someone had beat him with a flaming stick. He then proceeded to grab Levi's walkie-talkie and smash it to pieces. This was a Christmas present and Levi had generously shared them with his brothers.

Oh, Hello. Letting your anger go that far out of control is absolutely a No No in our house. Restitution will be made. Once Seth calmed down enough to listen to me, I went and got his piggy bank and I informed him that the contents of his bank would now be transferred to Levi's bank to pay him back for destroying his Christmas present. I told him that I was not taking his $10 in birthday money since that was a gift, but the rest of the money he had earned was now Levi's. If I thought he had hit the ceiling before, I underestimated how loud this child could scream. Good thing I am very congested and can't hear well. The $1.45 was moved over. Seth came completely unglued and decided that he totally did not want any of his money, not even his birthday money. Just throw it away! So I took it. Hey, $10.00 can buy a lot of wine! (Don't worry, he has the chance to earn it back. )

So, do you think he learned anything? Maybe even a little???? Yeah, me either. It's that thick skull issue. Sigh. Oh, but hey, maybe by the end of this lesson I will be a little bit richer. YEAH!