Crime and Punishment

I have been blessed with ample opportunities to discipline some kiddos over here lately and the creative juices must be flowing that direction. It is so tricky with these older boys to figure out what would be a consequence that doesn't punish me so much either. Of course I can remember my mom finding work for kids who couldn't get along, and I was usually part of that crowd. So here is a sampling of this weeks crimes and punishments:

Half Buck was asked to watch Mite at the library for 5 minutes while I helped Cents and Two Bits choose books. The problem was we had one of his rat pack along. So not cool to watch a baby bro. So they didn't. When I returned in 3 minutes because mommy radar was in high alert, there was no baby bro to be seen. After glancing around we saw all kinds of commotion in between the double doors out of the library and Mite was being shepherded back inside by a librarian. Should I say Media Specialist? Hot Mama, but first to reclaim my escapee. Hmmmm, really want to take that friend right on home, but why punish him. So I let Half Buck know his day was coming. Later I gave him the option of: a week without friends or 2 babysitting gigs without any monetary compensation. Guess what he chose? Boy was it fun to wake him at 7:30 am for his first sitting job : )

I took Buck and Half Buck to Harry Potter 6 this week. I have broken my unwritten rule of you have to read it first. It just isn't happening with my firstborn. I feel this failure keenly. I still hold out hope of a late in life conversion to the love of books, but game systems have come between him and the written word. Alas. The movie was pretty good and pretty long and we found ourselves stopping at past 11 at Meijer. I know this is crazy, but Finish Dish Detergent was Free with coupons and it was the last day of the sale and we had been at the lake all week. It was a now or never kind a deal (Okay, I know you are all thinking I'm nuts, but it was free Finish Detergent and I had 4 coupons: 4 free boxes and you can check out that part of my insanity over at bestbets). So it was a three minute trip for 4 boxes of free detergent and no the boys couldn't go look at legos or game in the electronic section they could stay with me thank you very much. But they didn't. So after 3 minutes I had my rain check (see, I'm not the only one pigging out on free dish detergent!) I am waiting on the bench up front. I'm tired, I packed a cottage worth of stuff this morn before 10. At 10 I switched to the cleaning lady. At noon I took a beach walk with 3 sibs and numerous nieces and nephews using them as slave labor to haul back rocks for my landscaping dreams. After lunch it was time to go back to the real world and home, but I managed to delay it until around 3:30 enjoying one last Shermans ice cream cone on the way. Then I made Little Ceasars Pizza for dinner. It was a long day, but it is the last day of vacation and some of the ice cream money amazingly was unspent. Okay, we charged the pizza. Anyway, that is my list of excuses for paging the boys after waiting 15 minutes at the front of the Meijer. Like there friends will know....at 11:30 at night. Anyway, they were all mad at me!!!! Who took them to the movie, gave them pizza and a week at the beach I might add. So I'm thinking these boys can help me reclaim some coupons from the recycling center....or.....wash the dishes by hand without the item we went into the store with. They chose recycling.

My star in the family fell a bit this week. Two Bits is a happy, easy, compliant, smart boy. I'm so glad because he is in the middle. Now I know Sister Mary 3 and the middle kid in my clan would say: the centerpiece, the cream in the oreo, the meat and cheese in the middle, the best stuff is in the middle. Good point. I love going to this boys parent teacher conferences or as I call them: mutual admiration meetings. But I must confess this boy has a stubborn streak that runs silent and deep. I mean deep. It was his week to load the dishwasher, but he didn't want to. All kinds of excuses, whining, trying to get out of it ensued. All the while his big bro Buck was taking out the garbage as asked, and pulling in the wet towels before the rains as asked. So when he sneaks away when my back is turned, it is off to time out. He is quickly ready to comply now, but now I need a time out. So he can wait til my kitchen chore is done. He asks once more to come out and I tell him this. When I call him out a few later, he humbling comes out and reports: I was angry when you said I couldn't come out of time out so I broke my glasses and threw them in the trash. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now I'm more than a little angry. You'll have to see my earlier post on glasses to know how hard it is to keep these boys in glasses over here. So my reply is: I think you already know you made a bad choice when you are angry. Now I'm angry and I don't want to make a bad choice. So we will talk about this tomorrow (when I'm not seeing red glasses). I imagine he is a bit fearful of what I can come up with by tomorrow, so he keeps coming round to it: I don't even like glasses, I don't need them, do I have to pay, how much. WE WILL TALK ABOUT IT TOMORROW teeth clenched. Well it took me about 3 weeks to get the insurance to agree to replacing them. And he has been earning money around here with weeding and extra chores to chip in. Since they are covered this time, we will tuck it in his college fund and hope he is wearing contacts by then.