If anyone ever thinks that the life of a stay-at-home daddy is boring, they are WRONG!
We started out this week (Monday) in the typical fashion getting up at 7 a.m. to get ready for the school day. As I was stepping out of the shower, I could hear Jackson in the bathroom above me moving around. Remember he has 5 things to do in the morning before going to breakfast... going potty, washing his hands, brushing his teeth, making his bed, and getting dressed for the day. Three of those tasks require him to be in the bathroom, so I thought nothing of it that there was movement above me. As I was brushing my teeth, I suddenly heard this creeping noise, as those a door was opening very slowly. The sound was coming from inside the walls of the bathroom. I looked behind the door and listened closer and suddenly water started dripping, and then pouring out of the top of the door frame. I thought the toilet upstairs must be over flowing and I ran upstairs. When I got to the bathroom, Jackson was not in there and the room was fine with no water on the floor. I called for Jackson. No response. I went to Jackson's room where he was standing on his bed making it. I called him over to me and asked him to tell me what he did in the bathroom to which he quickly replied, "I didn't do anything!" I took him into the bathroom and asked him again and he said, "I didn't do anything!" I told him that I knew he was lying and he started to cry. So I grabbed his arm and pulled him down to the basement with me to see the water coming out of the door frame. When we got down there and I started wiping it all up, I asked him again. This time he replied differently with, "I don't want to tell you because you're going to be mad." I, of course, was already mad and said for him to just tell me. "I poured a glass of water down the vent." Yes, he poured a glass of water down the heating vent in the upstairs bathroom which then came down through the walls and out the top of the door frame in the basement bathroom.
Now, question for all my readers... do you think this little boy deserves a big, happy Christmas filled with lots of presents after this? I understand curiosity BUT as a kid I would have NEVER thought to do something like this. Luckily, I got everything cleaned up and there was no damage, but we rent this house. We have talked to Jackson about this before that we are borrowing this house and we need to treat it very nicely. Give me your thoughts in the comment section below...
Yesterday as Jackson was hopping into the van after school he said (as always), "I had a good day at school today, Daddy, and I ate all of my lunch." We have had a lot of problems with Jackson not eating his lunch at school at all since he's been taking ADHD meds so I am constantly stressing the importance of eating even if he is not hungry. Coincidentally, last night we also started a new 'Sticker Reward Chart System' in order to reward positive behaviors (Daniel and I feel like we always focus on negative behavior - because quite frankly, there is a lot of bad behavior), anyway, with this new system Jackson can get up to 5 stickers per day and at the end of the week based on the number of stickers he has earned he will get to do something fun as a reward on the weekend like a Family Game Night, going out for ice cream, or going to see a movie. So Jackson earned 2 stickers yesterday, one of them being for having a great day at school including eating all of his lunch.
When Jackson started school, Daniel and I both joined the PTA, so today I went to school with Jackson and volunteered at the Holiday Gift Shop in the library where kids can come and purchase items for their family members at school for Christmas. I had a lot of fun watching all of these little shopping buying gifts for their family members (and even themselves). Since I was there, I went to lunch with Jackson as well. While we were in the lunchroom, the teacher aide came up to me and asked if I had received her note about Jackson and lunch yesterday. "No, I didn't get a note," I replied. And then I learned how Jackson hasn't really been eating all of his lunch all of the time and how yesterday he ate some of it and then threw it on the floor, tried to hid it from the teacher and made a big deal about how he couldn't eat it now since it was on the floor. Anyway, I was confused as to why his teacher didn't tell me about this in either a note home from school or in an email so after lunch I went to her. Come to find out, when Jackson was walking out the door yesterday at the end of the school day, she gave him the baggy with the rest of the sandwich he had thrown on the floor along with a note for me for Jackson to delivery to me across the street. The sandwich and the note never made it to me. Jackson said that he doesn't remember what happened to them.
Oh, and the best part, Jackson's teacher told me that she heard from him about what he did on Monday with pouring two glasses of water down the vent. TWO! 2! Wow!
So I asked you again... do you think this little boy deserves to have a super, awesome Christmas filled with presents when he's doing things like this DAYS before Santa comes? Clearly, the Elf on the Shelf, "Oscar," is not helping! <Heavy Sigh>
Hmm... I would go with a NO! Maybe just socks and underwear. Cause that's all Santa brings to bad little children.
ReplyDeleteI think no matter what children do they always deserve to have an amazing Christmas. But 2 glasses of water though, that's actually pretty funny, I'm sure you didn't think it was at the time and still may not, but I see my ADHD child doing the same thing, and yes that is not something that I would ever encourage. However I don't think it is something that should prevent a child from having a good Christmas. In my opinion, nothing really should
ReplyDeleteAs far as the lunch thing, I also deal with the same thing with my 5 year old son, who again is ADHD. He does not like to eat lunch nor dinner for that matter. His doctor actually said since he doesn't eat much, to give him those little drinks by PediSure called SideKicks, they have the "good stuff" kids need when they don't get it from food. Just a suggestion maybe try those with a fruit for lunch. They have them in a few different flavors, Chocolate Milk, Vanilla Milk, Strawberry Milk and Banana Milk.
The water down the vent thing sounds like something I would have done as a kid. It certainly deserved punishment on the spot, but probably doesn't rise to the level of endangering Christmas.
ReplyDeleteThe whole lying and throwing away teacher's notes thing is something else. I don't think I would have dreamed of ever doing that. Good luck with your decision. It's a toughie.
Thanks for your feedback, and especially to you Kimberly... I agree with you that every child should have a great Christmas and Jackson certainly will. I do think the water down the vent was funny in some ways, but the danger factor is really what got me! That's a great idea for the Pedisure Sidekicks... my husband works for the company that makes them, too! ;-)
ReplyDeleteJust found your blog. My older son had/has ADHD and I understand being so ticked off that you want to curb the presents and treats, especially when you feel like you've done a lot for your child already. But it's true that every kid deserves a good Christmas. Keep doing what you're doing and try to let each day go (realistically, it doesn't work to punish him for a bad day in the middle of several good ones) by bedtime and start again in the morning. It really, really will get better. By middle school, you would almost never have known how rowdy my kid was as a grade-schooler.
ReplyDeleteI hope so! Just 5 more years until we get to middle school I guess! LOL ;-)
ReplyDeleteI've been having a lot of good luck with "Is that true, or is that what you *wish* was true?" I got the idea from "The Explosive Child: A New Approach for Understanding and Parenting Easily Frustrated, Chronically Inflexible Children" by Ross W. Greene. Actually, I got a whole *bundle* of good ideas from that book.
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