“What are you gonna do about it?”
That’s what the boy said when he was told to sit down, be quiet, do the core or not, but there would be consequences if he didn’t do it. I completely understand questioning authority and such, but open defiance like that, to the person who just dropped several hundred dollars on crap for one’s birthday, and about to drop several hundred more – well, that’s a bit different.
This was after about twenty minutes of fussing because he was told to coil a hose. I showed him how to do it – four times yesterday and once again today – but his only attempts were just pulling the snarled kinked mess into a pile that would barely allow any water through at a reduced trickle. He did that last night, which is why he had to redo it this morning.
His mom and step-dad said that grounding him, even on his birthday, was an acceptable punishment for his weaponized incompetence, but neither my wife nor I want to restrict that. Besides, we had already spent a bunch of money on food and supplies and that decision would impact other families now as well.
My wife suggested to him that an apology was appropriate and he chose to write an apology note, so that is a bit of progress. We aren’t sure yet what is going to come of this – we are moving forward with the birthday gathering but need to figure out a solution for the attitude. Sure, he’d be perfectly happy sitting on his tablet, playing video games, or watching TV all day, but that isn’t really acceptable either.
The only summer camps in the area are the religious ones like Vacation Bible School – not gonna deal with that.
We’ll have to come up with something, but right now, I have about an hour to finish prepping the food and stuff before we have to go, so…
Song of the day: Hip to Be Square by Huey Lewis and the News
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