I was about ready to head to bed tonight, completely satisfied with the way the day went. I had a wonderful morning with my oldest sister, had a great afternoon taking care of the garden and yard with my boys. And had a great evening, having Scooter help me replant tomatoes, put cans around them and water everything down.
Everyone had taken a bath and we were all getting ready for bed.
And then it happened.
My day was ruined.
Scooter decided at that moment to reveal that he had taken some things that weren’t his. They were his cousins, they were expensive and he had been asked about them earlier in the day. He had lied.
To make a long story short, Scooter will call his aunt in the morning and apologize, he will write his cousins a letter and he will spend the next two days working on cleaning his room, minus TV, radio, DS, games, etc. His source of entertainment will be reading a book for 10 minutes and he will be taking care of his dog and cat chores when he goes outside.
We talked tonight about why he said the things he did, we discussed why I was disappointed and I explained to him that we had such a great, fun day…and those memories were tarnished because he had acted pretty selfishly. I didn’t yell (amazingly) and I tried not to over-react…but it was more important to me to not under-react.
It is very important to me that my children understand that they don’t “deserve” certain things just because others have them. There is way too much of that in the world already.
So, although I will have to change my plans…and the weekend would be a perfect one for fishing, playing outside and having a GREAT time…we won’t all be enjoying it. There is a lesson to be taught, and it will serve him well through the rest of his life…and I owe him that.
Why don’t the parenting books ever tell you about the days it sucks to be a parent? Oh well, summer should last for more than one weekend in North Dakota, right?
Wag'n Tales 
Totally one of the toughest parts of parenting – and Amen to the part of just because others have something doesn’t mean we “deserve” to have it too and that there is too much of that going on! We are fighting that with a cell phone for our 11 year old – her cousin got one for her 11th and our isn’t getting one for several years! Prayers for you, you did great!
Thanks for the support! I struggle with this, especially when my husband is farming, putting in late hours and I end up setting the standards. I don’t want to be the “bad guy” all the time, but this was a situation that I could not ignore or let slide. The cell phone thing has become a hot-button topic as well…and our oldest is only going to be 9! It’s madness. Thank you for the prayers, I needed them! 🙂