But they are rotten. Just rotten to the core.
They're always testing you. Always tip toeing right up to the edge of those behavioral boundaries that you put in place for them.
Like I'll put the kid down for a nap, and I'll tell him "You stay in that bed, or we're going to have a problem."
And so what he does is he'll dangle one foot off the bed so that it's hovering a fraction of a millimeter above the floor. And I know, I KNOW that as soon as I walk out the door, he's pushing stuff around with his foot. His cars, his blocks, his Elmo, whatever he can reach without technically violating the nap order.
And I think it's times like that when, as a parent, you really have to reach back and remember maybe the five or six worst things you ever did when you were a kid.
Like one time, my friend John, his dad built a teepee in the backyard for us. A real live teeepee. And John told me "Tonight, after everybody goes to bed, sneak out of the house and meet me here. In the teepee. We're going to have a secret meeting."
Well, of course. I was five. It sounded like the most reasonable thing in the world to me. You got a teepee. You're going to sneak out of the house and have a secret meeting. Just seemed to follow logically.
So that night my parents put me to bed. I waited until the house was completely quiet. I got out of bed, put on my bathrobe, walked down the street to John's house, let myself in the backyard and sat down in the teepee.
John stood me up (and neglected to mention the sprinkler system in the backyard), but that's a story for another post.
The point is, in all likelihood, your kids aren't any rottener than you were when you were that age, and you turned out OK, so don't feel like you have to address every single little incident of rottenness that comes up. Some of it you just have to let it slide or just put it behind you and forget about it.
Like the time the kid threw his shoe at my head while I was driving. I figured he's tired, he's cranky, I'm letting that one slide.
And to be honest, I was pretty darned impressed with his marksmanship.
.jpg)
8 comments:
Marksmanship indeed!
congrats and welcome to the "Wonderful World of Parenting".
Your first post makes me miss writing stories about my boys!!!
Your son is obviously gifted.
I can't wait to see pics of the little guy. Can we expect that at some point?
I'm not allowed to post pictures until the adoption goes through, which could be months from now.
I have one picture from Halloween where the kid has his Spiderman costume on, mask and everything, and I said to Tony "Can't I post this one? You can't really see anything."
But Tony vetoed it.
Maybe I could post a picture of just the costume with no kid in it.
I'm curious. Why aren't you allowed to post pictures until the adoption goes through?
Funny you should ask, Jarred. Until the adoption goes through, the kid is a ward of the court, and Tony and I are technically his foster parents, so all the rules that would apply to any foster family apply to us. And that's one of the rules. I can send pictures to my Mom and stuff, but I can't put pictures anyplace that's publicly accessible.
There's just all kinds of rules. You would not believe. He can't sleep in the top level of his bunk bed. I had to take a water safety class or else I wouldn't be allowed to take him near any body of water, even a duck pond.
Ah, okay. Interesting. I have to admit I'm rather curious about the reasoning behind that particular rule. (I admit I understand the one about the water safety course to a certain degree, though.)
Thanks for answering my question!
actually, my son has chucked shoes at me when I am driving and I have come down very very hard on him about that because of the safety issue. I have tried to impress on him that you do not ever ever ever do anything to distract a driver.
Post a Comment