I love the goofy face he's making here!
There is not really any particular reason I chose this photo for this entry. I was just looking through some old pictures of Austin and came upon this one. He was 19 months old here and he was helping me plant flowers in the back yard on this day. I remember what a little clown he was that day. I thought he was adorable. I still think he's adorable. He's spoiled rotten. I hasten to add here, however, I didn't do all the spoiling myself. How could he not be spoiled? He's surrounded by adults who have delighted in most every thing he's ever done. There are days (and I never thought I'd ever say this!) when I would give just about anything to have him back at this age. Kids grow up way too fast. It boggles my mind to realize that my older kids are now 26, 24 and 23 years old. How in the world did that happen??? And, my gosh, how can I possibly be old enough to have kids that age? Oh, the tricks our minds play on us. Anyway, Austin will be 8 in October. It simply doesn't seem possible. We are going shopping later this afternoon to buy new school shoes and supplies for the first day of school on Monday. He will be a second grader. Like I said, it boggles the mind.
At the moment we are struggling through his first experience of being grounded. He's always been pretty easy to handle. On the few past occasions that he's been a little on the obstinate side I could simply begin counting to three and before I would get to two he would come out of his obstinant state and do whatever it was that I had asked him to do. I guess he's really starting to grow up now because night before last (which is probably not the very first time it's happened, maybe Mommy is just having selective memory) he dug in and asserted his little independant self.
Patrick and Amber had gone to a cookout at Patrick's friends' house. When they got back here they wanted to finish watching a movie (dvd) that they had been watching earlier. Austin decided at that exact moment that he wanted to play a game on the Playstation 2 in Patrick's room. I really think that it was more like he wanted to be in the same room as Patrick and Amber. Right before they had gotten home, I had told Austin that it was time for him to take a shower. I told him to come on and get in the shower and let Patrick and Amber watch the movie. This was his first "dig in". He insisted that he only wanted to play the game for a few minutes. I told him, "No, Patrick and Amber want to watch a movie and it's not your room. Come on and get in the shower now." He, of course, was tring to ignore me and keep playing the game. I had to raise my voice a little. He can't handle a raised voice. I wasn't yelling, I really wasn't, but I was aggravated that he was being obstinate. My tone of voice didn't hide the fact that I was aggravated. He stomped out of Patrick's room and went into his room. I once again asked him to get in the shower. (Why do little boys hate to take baths and showers?) By now he was really sulking and I was tired and aggravated. Usually, at this point all I have to do is tell him to get in the shower and begin counting and by the time I reach two he's up and headed to the shower. NOT THIS TIME! He jumped to the floor on the other side of his bed and really dug in. This is not my first time around the block people. I could see the writing on the wall. This was defiance, plain and simple. He drew the line in the sand and I was forced to be the big, bad Mommy! If he could have heard the thoughts in my head at that moment he would have heard me saying, "Oh, Austin, please don't make me ground you. I don't want to do this, please don't make me do this. Please just be my little obedient Austin and get in the shower". He, however, didn't hear those thoughts. What he heard was, "I am going to count to three and if you're not on the way to the shower by the time I get to three, you're grounded". I don't know, maybe he was thinking it would be cool to be grounded. Maybe he thought that he would be grounded and he wouldn't have to take the shower after all and it would be worth the grounding. But what happened was, I began counting slowly. "One....(no movement)two...Austin, I mean it, I am going to ground you, please don't make me do that. (no movement)...three (still no movement). Then that old familar feeling that parents get after they realize that their bluffs been called set it. What is that thought? It's, "OH my gosh, I've grounded this kid and in the process have punished MYSELF!" So then, he gets up off the floorand stomps to the bathroom for his shower, crying all the way. He wasn't crying because he'd been grounded,m he was crying because I was mad at him. Through his tears he was telling me that I was mean and that I didn't love him and that he doesn't like to be yelled at. I reiterate here that I was not really yelling.Now, here is the thing that I don't understand. Once I reached the magic number of three and he'd become grounded, he got up and walked to the shower! No more arguing! Could someone please explain to my why?
When he got out of the shower he wanted to know what he was grounded from. Without thinking I told him that he was not allowed to have any kids in to play and he was not allowed to play inside anyone's house for the rest of the week (Sunday). I think at the time I said he was not allowed to play with his friends until Monday. Now here is the thing people, These are the last few days of his summer vacation and I'm off this weekend! In hindsight, I wish I'd said that he would not be allowed to play any video games until Monday. So, now, I'm living with the decision I made. Well, ok, maybe not completely. We both kind of conveniently forgot the part about not playing with his friends at all. But he's not having friends in and he's not going in anyone's house (this is huge, because these kids are constantly playing in someone's house). He's begged me all morning to let him have someone in. I have held strong (stop laughing!). I plead old age. It's expected that we become forgetful as we age, right? Maybe I just think that I said he couldn't play with this friends at all. Yeah, that's it, I just thought it, I didn't really say it.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
PS: Within an hour of posting this entry, Austin came into the house and said, "Mommy, I'm going down to Dylan's house." "Not inside", I said. To which he responded with the following zinger, "I know, I'm just going to be outside. Are you okay with that?" Am I okay with that? I swear this kid is a 30 year old in a 7 year old body.
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