Work for Me and Works for Me Wednesday

I have a plethora of things to discuss today.

First of all I want everyone to stop, go to Melissa M’s site, Free in Christ and put the biggest praise you can think of in her comments. She give me the information I needed to fix my profile problem. (You won't believe how long Mr. Right searched my template to find the problem to no avail... I owe him big time just for trying!)

You went to Melissa’s site and you came back? Whew. I’m glad I didn’t lose you.

Now, I need some good help here because I am at my wit’s end. Literally. I can see the end of it and it is not a pretty sight.

See this boy? Do you want to see his handsome face again? Here is your chance to do something good in life. All you have to do is pass on your words of wisdom. It will cost you nothing, but it may keep him breathing and allow him to see the ripe age of 7.

Mr. Right and I are having major problems with our son. In the past week, he has been in trouble three times at after school care for not listening to the staff and not obeying their requests. On top of this last report, there was a message on the answering machine from his teacher, discussing his poor behavior during school that day. As I was listening to the message, I stared at my son, who looked horror-stricken that his teacher called. When he started to give excuses, I cut him off and sent him to his room until I had a chance to discuss the situation with his father. It was either that or kill him. Since I don't relish the thought of jail time, I controlled my desire to throttle him; I did, however, leave him with the impression that his life was over as he knew it.

Here’s what we came up with: (We spank, so if that is a problem for you, just skip the next sentence.) To impress upon him the seriousness of the situation, he received spankings for each incident. He lost privileges to his gameboy; he will not be allowed to play it until we decide that he is behaving properly. (I do not foresee him having it back anytime in the near future.) He will have some sort of chore to do everyday outside of what he normally must do. He will write a letter of apology to each teacher/staff, stating what he will do differently. We have been working on first-time obedience, but we will push it all the harder from here on out. To teach respect, we have gone back to answering every request with either a yes ma’am/sir or a no ma’am/sir. (We had been slacking a bit with this one, so we are picking it up again.) Lastly (not as in last resort, but in last to be defined), we will use scripture to support his obeying, being respectful and basically how to live his life in the footsteps of Jesus.

If you have any suggestions that might aid us with teaching him, I am all ears. I would love to hear other ways that may help to teach him to obey. I need to find some way to get through his head, so perhaps you all can help me out.

Finally. to join in Shannon’s “Works for Me Wednesday,” a wonderful way to show shortcuts and helpful hints in daily life, my helpful hint for today is this:

Keep filled water bottles in the fridge for your kids. Whenever the kids have been out playing and need a quick drink, they come in get their water containers. I don’t have to stop what I am doing to help them with this task and they feel good knowing that they did it on their own.