05.21.08

Ryan broke a sprinkler head this morning. (They were only just repaired last Thursday, it's hasn't even been a week!) He ran the cart into it and it snapped. I was so angry, I wanted to snap him. I tried not to yell too much. (We were out front waiting for the bus and didn't need the neighborhood to know.)

We talked about what he did wrong and what his punishment should be. I thought he should do something for 100 days think that it would be about $100 to fix and he might understand the concept of a dollar per day. I told him I would decide what his punishment should be when he got home from school.

As the day went on, I forgot about it. I am not good at holding a grudge for very long. It just wastes too much energy. Extra energy that I don't have and creates more stress than I need. But I remembered when he got home. Ryan "hid out" in the playroom reading a book. He usually goes right to my laptop to watch NASCAR races on youtube. I asked him if he wanted to talk about his punishment. "no" He finally came out and I gave him a choice;

Two weeks without his DS

or

Two weeks doing chores for 15 minutes each day.

He had to think about it. Probably because they don't do chores now so he wasn't sure what it might entail. He realized that he plays with his DS for a lot longer than 15 minutes each day and chose the chores. He said he would do them at 6 pm.

I am going to have him pick up the mess that he and Andy have created. Knowing Andy, he will probably join in thinking he is in trouble too. I only wish I could sit and relax while he works. But he needs guidance. And supervision.

This punishment thing was hard. I really did many punishments except for paddling. Until my mom broke the paddle on my bum.