Quote:
Originally Posted by dar512
Good job SonofV  |
Quote:
Originally Posted by ZenGum
Sharp lad... how old is he?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sundae Girl
Yup, well brought up lad, well done.
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Thank you all, but hold on, there's more.
He called a couple more times, impatiently waiting for us as we made our way through the regular commuting traffic. We finally picked him up at the library, and he hopped in the car. As we circled the parking lot, lining up to drive to the mall, across the street, I launched into basically the same speech in the post above, what a good kid, thanks, glad you get it, I want to reward you for doing the right thing, etc, etc. That took us across the street into the parking lot. We were discussing was it going to be Zumiez (skateboarder shop) or Game Stop (video game shop).
As I continued to talk and drive toward the entrance closest to Game Stop, he said "I don't think I deserve to go."
"Oh really? Why?"
"Because I already went to the mall."
"Even though we talked about staying at the library?"
"Yeah."
"Ok." as we drove past the mall entrance.
That night we told him we were disappointed that he didn't keep his word, that we want to trust him, but he has to earn that trust. We also praised him for telling the truth, when he could have remained quiet, despite the fact that we could never have known.
He wasn't able to resist the temptation to cruise the mall. That's regrettable, but understandable. He disobeyed, in a small but explicit way. This is an area that he (we) need to work on. That didn't come out right. This is an example of the stage of his development and maturity. It's normal. This is him growing.
And taken as a whole, initiating the communication, cooperating with us, failing to hold up his part of the cooperation, telling us the uncomfortable truth about the situation, and doing so with plain talk is still very encouraging. I'm still as proud of him as ever, but I have made a small recalibration of my understanding of him and how I parent him. It's one of many I've made and one of many to come.