On Saturday, the boy decided he no longer wanted to participate in our household. He hid out all Friday to avoid his writing assignment so the next morning I gave him the choice – get out of bed, do his assignment, and be a member of our household, or he can stay in bed and not do his assignment but opt out of participating in the household.
Of course he opted out.
Like his previous occasion of self determination, I made him repeat everything back to me – making sure he understood that means we aren’t taking him out to any activities, buying any more things for him, cooking for him, and basically he will need to take care of himself until he returns home. We will still provide the ingredients he needs to make his sandwiches, but we will no longer provide him snacks or treats.
And he seemed absolutely fine with that – and held the face of defiance that only an 11-year-old can, stating that his step-grandmother, Moo-moo, lets him do whatever he wants. He held that face of defiance until he was also informed that Moo-moo had already been made aware of his actions and choices, and was in agreement that his behavior was unacceptable so she was not going to give in.
That was the moment his mask slipped – it was brief, but noticeable. I could tell that he was calculating previous punishments back at home, how he handled them, and how he worked around them. What he doesn’t know is how pissed his parents are and that they have already removed game systems, toys, and his TV. His days will be getting up, doing a writing assignment before school, going to school, coming home and doing his homework and chores, down-time (if any) between homework and bedtime will be filled with reading or writing assignments. They are also looking into behavioral therapy and reform schools as this behavior has been going on for some time – long before he arrived here.
His defiant smirk did quickly return, but even if Moo-moo caves (which seems unlikely at the moment), his parents have a game plan that he will not be able to avoid.
What bugs me the most about all this is that the boy is smart, but he’s using those smarts to be a sneaky weasel rather than bettering himself. Conversations do not seem to work on him, and he always does the bare minimum he possibly can to get by and has zero pride in what he produces. He’s going to have a really hard time in the world if he doesn’t get his act together and learn some responsibility.
But that isn’t something we need to worry about – we just need to make it through the next week and a half…
Song of the day: The New Order by Testament