Any of you that know me, know my son has a mind of his own. He has a penchant for challenging the rules, pushing boundaries, like most boys, just finding every way he can to see exactly what he can get away with. He’s 5 by the way.
We’ve been battling with him lately about his stealing. He hasn’t taken anything from a store, yet. His biggest offenses have been little toys from school. He always tries the “I got it from the ‘treat box’” line. But we learned very quickly that the daycare doesn’t put chewed up Lego pieces in the ‘treat box’. The last time, I actually saw his latest find in his book bag when I picked him up before we had left the classroom. I took it to the teacher with him, told her that he was using the ‘treat box’ as an excuse to bring things home. We talked to him about taking other peoples things, how he would feel if they took his things, etc. I also asked her in front of him to not let him get anything from a treat box for the remainder of that week so I would know for sure that he shouldn’t be bringing anything home. So far, this has worked, he hasn’t offered to try and bring anything home from school.
On top of the school, he goes into his sisters bedroom and takes things of hers. Small things, like pencils, little toys, his favorite thing being her lip gloss or chap stick. His favorite hiding place for these things were in his pillow cases. So, with our daughters bedroom door closed, his pillow cases permanently removed, him losing several of his favorite toys (an eye for an eye punishment), that has subsided as well.
With all of that said, he is a very sweet loving child. He loves attention, loves hugs and kisses, is very open and talkative, your very average 5 year old boy.
This morning however, was literally our biggest WTF were you thinking moment of his young life. Its a work day, he usually wakes up before everyone else, gets himself dressed and watches cartoons on the couch right outside our bedroom before we get up. Nothing special, I heard him up what seemed especially early this morning, made a mental note, but dozed back off….only to be awakened shortly after by him and his sister arguing, then him crying very abruptly. My first thought was, “did she smack him?” I started in with the obligatory, “stop it, its too damn early for this arguing over the TV channel…”. “No, daddy, its not about the TV”; OK friends, are you ready for this..? ’cause I wasn’t. “He peed in a cup and put it in my bedroom and told me to drink it, that it was water.”
Oh My GOD! I have never jumped out of bed, grabbed him off the couch, brought him in the bedroom and spanked him so quickly. I was utterly blown away. I had no comprehension of what I had just heard other than, that is fucking ridiculous and he is getting his ass beat over it.
He was sent to his bedroom until we were ready to go to school/work. I gave him a few words before I left; “that’s disgusting, do you think that’s funny, do you hate your sister so much that you want her to drink pee?, there’s so much wrong with that in so many ways, etc…”.
Since, Paige and I have read a few articles/comments online about how this isn’t as unique as we had first thought, not as bad, although not OK, etc. I’m still not totally convinced, and we are actually still brainstorming on how we need to sit him down and explain exactly what the problem was and a suitable punishment for this crime. Yes, there will be more to come. The spanking is not to be the end of this.
So, with that all out there, I want to hear from you, thoughts, stories, opinions, ideas. Let me hear them, good or bad, whether I agree or not, I’m asking for them. Am I overreacting, or is this even a bigger deal than I’m making it? But seriously, in the end, WTF could he have possibly been thinking?
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