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<\/a> <\/p>\nLast week turned out to be the kind nightmares are made of. Things were going pretty well until the fender bender on Wednesday, but when I started losing all that time to insurance calls and body shop estimate visits, well, my quality of life degenerated. It did not help that Adam was getting pokier and pokier and pokier and pokier at getting ready for school. On Tuesday when we all needed to be out the door at 7:45 because I was making jam and doing the morning school run, I sent him upstairs to brush his teeth. When I went up to check on him ten minutes later he was sitting on the bed with his pants on the floor. <\/p>\n
“Adam, what in the world are you doing?” There was, unfortunately, not even an inch of sweetness in my voice. A flicker of recognition crossed his face as he said, “Oh, I was thinking you said to change my clothes.” <\/p>\n
On Friday it took him F O R T Y minutes to get dressed. You read that right. I was tired of the nagging. He raced through breakfast, I combed his hair while his ride waited, and he never did get his teeth brushed. I called David and had a blow off session. This is ridiculous. I am not going to spend his entire school life coaching him through each step, reminding him, hurrying him along …. because all it does is make both of us feel completely frustrated before 8:00. Neither does it teach him responsibility. <\/p>\n
David to the rescue. When he was a counsellor at Bald Eagle Boys Camp, they used lots of natural consequences. It’s a little hard when your kids are really little. It just doesn’t work to let a child continue leaning over the edge of the tub and then have them fall out (natural consequence) because it’s not safe. But as Adam is getting older, we are able to use it more and more. I love it because it teaches him about real life …. the same things happen that would happen if he were an adult. <\/p>\n
We waited until last night after a good weekend to bring up the subject. Just before he went to bed, we talked about his problem with messing around while he’s getting dressed and how he is going to need to learn how to be responsible on his own. We gave him a few options … learn to hurry along or have me wake him fifteen minutes earlier. He said earlier. We talked about the way he gets dressed and decided it would work better for him to put his shoes by the front door instead of putting them on with his shirt and pants so his “fingers can wake up.” (Seriously, this is his excuse for why he cannot get dressed faster). And then we told him that I will not be telling him to hurry up or what to do next. He normally has fifty minutes and that is way more then a gracious amount of time to get completely dressed, eat his breakfast, comb his hair, and brush his teeth. If he does not get done by the time Kristina gets here to pick him up, I will take him to school when he is ready and he will be late (this is a HUGE deal to him). Plus, because he missed his ride, he will need to give up some of his allowance money to pay for the gas. <\/p>\n
Just before he went to bed he decided he didn’t need to get up earlier than normal after all. I was super relieved. I knew the first morning he’d be super quick and I wasn’t sure what to do with the boredom … or worse yet with the way he would believe he can mess around and still get ready on time.<\/p>\n
At 7, David woke him and reminded him of his responsibility. In F I V E minutes flat, he was downstairs with his shirt buttoned correctly and his pants and socks on. He ate breakfast, brushed his teeth, combed his hair, put on his shoes and tied them and waited. I looked at the clock and realized he had almost a full thirty minutes to wait. He read books, we talked, he looked at more books and played with his toy snake. Finally he went back out to the door to wait. In a minute he said, “Mommy, I am just waiting and waiting. I will pay you one penny from my allowance to just take me to school right away.” <\/p>\n
Funny, funny boy. I’m wondering how long this will last. <\/p>\n
Speaking of school: what do y’all pack in your kids lunches? Adam likes taking leftovers better than a sandwich but what else? He’s tired of chips and yogurt but likes fruit and a cookie. How can I round out that much sweetness?<\/p>\n
Speaking of allowances: Adam gets $1 \/ week and is saving and saving and saving for a BB gun. The other day he showed me a coupon to Dicks Sporting Goods for $10 off any hunting purchase of $50 or more. When I asked him where he got it he said, “I found it in Pa Beachy’s trash can and he said he didn’t need it so I kept it and gave the other one to Andrian (his friend at school). We’ve been doing the allowance since he turned five to teach him about money. He has to put 50% into savings, tithe 10% and 40% he can spend. I nearly popped with pride when I saw his money savvy skills and his generosity. I did not have the heart to tell him the coupon would expire two months before he had enough cash. Everything inside of me wanted to loan him the money so he could use the coupon, but David to the rescue again. “Do you really want to teach him to put things on payments?” Of course not. Instead we’re letting him redeem the coupon with us. Please don’t tell him.<\/p>\n
Oh, and while we’re on the subject of allowances, did you know in the Parents magazine they suggest giving a child an allowance that is half their age. Can anyone tell me why you would give a six year old $3 a week to spend at will?????? Is it any wonder Americans think they should have lots of easy money? If you do this and it works, tell me how.<\/p>\n
Speaking of domestics: Please give me more yummy granola recipes. I have only ever made one kind and I’d love to try some new ones. We are a cereal for breakfast kind of family, but we all love homemade granola over the boxed kind any day. But you can only eat so much of one kind for days on end.<\/p>\n