Too purty to live in town.....

8/5/07

I met a new friend online here and wanted to publicly thank williampadgett for the awardicon and merit badge he so graciously presented me with. He is a talented writer, so I encourage all of you to stop by his port and enjoy his writing.

Today was a beautiful day! Yesterday Joe went to the springs with some friends, and somewhere along the way he dropped his manners and had a "moment" and disrespected the mom of the other children that was there. UT-OH!!! NOT a good thing. After returning home, and hearing about it, I sent him to his room, which resulted in even more attitude and disrespect. Well, I can fix that! If he has all that energy to have an attitude, he can certainly push a lawnmower. So he did until it was dark. Then he went to bed directly after his shower with no tv or toys.

This morning, the tv restriction was still in full force. He continued working on the lawn this morning, and I informed him that if he could show good respect and manners, that I could be convinced to give him tv priviledges back. Around 1pm or so, I told him that it was getting too hot outside, and that he could relax inside and watch tv and play inside until after 6 when he could go back out on the lawnmower after the heat of the day has eased up.

I told him numerous times how proud of him I was of how the yard looked and that I was impressed with his work. I want him to learn to take pride in the work that he does, even if it is disciplinary. I even mentioned later on about maybe hiring him to do the yard. I asked him how much he felt mowing the lawn was worth, and told him to think about what he felt was reasonable. My motivation for doing this is to try to introduce to him the art of negotiation. He knows the work that's involved and the time it takes. It will be interesting to see what figure he comes up with.

As of now, his attitude is much improved and I think he's now been dutifully reminded that being disrespectful to adults will not work in his favor.

I hope all is doing well with those who read this. Thanks for coming by,
Curls