Somehow this doesn’t make the baby books. I can’t imagine why (insert sarcasm). Dylan, my fairly easy to parent boy, my people pleasing boy, the boy I always get complements about, got in trouble at school. Granted, the first month of school he got student of the month and I hadn’t gotten one negative comment from his teacher until….last Thursday.
Dylan’s teacher stopped me after school to tell me 3 things:
- One: Last week when they had a substitute almost the whole week his name had been written on the board for being bad several times.
- two: One afternoon (while there was a substitute) him and 3 of his classmates decided they were going leave the room to go to the office to get new markers because theirs were not working.
- three: she said she had just seen a decline in his behavior over the last couple weeks: talking, not listening, etc.
Honestly I was pretty surprised. I was disappointed. I was worried that it was starting already. I wasn’t sure how to react. I told Dylan to wait in his room when we got home so that I could call Kevin and talk to him. Kev decided to come home so that we could talk to Dylan together. We decided beforehand that we were going to take away TV for a week and check back in with his teacher and if things hadn’t improved then we would take it away for another week. We spent quite awhile talking to him and then dealt out his punishment. He cried, not mad tears, sad tears, it was hard to watch. I emailed his teacher to let her know what we were doing etc so that she could check in with us. This was his first punishment that wasn’t a time-out. Nothing more drastic had been necessary up to this point.
As much as I hate to admit it, this punishment was total punishment for me as well. No show in the morning so I could stay in bed a little longer, no movie when he was home during naptime so that I could rest, etc. You see, Dylan is not a very good independent player, he never has been. He needs you to give him ideas and tasks, and nothing ever lasts very long. However, as much as I was dreading it, it really wasn’t that bad. I’m not saying I’m ready to get rid of the TV, I think it is enjoyable in moderation, but it was nice too see him spend his time in different ways.
I am happy to say that he got good reports the whole week from his teacher so his restriction ended today. I am also happy to see that the time away from the TV changed him a little bit, it was no longer his automatic choice. I know this is one of the first (and probably one of the smallest) hard parenting decisions that we will have to make over the years, but any small inconvenience or discomfort is worth seeing your children grow into the people you want them to be.
1 comment:
Good job mama! I'm not sure what triggers those moments, but they seem to come out of nowhere. You're a good MAMA!!
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