Unfortunately for him, he is feeling like he is entitled to do whatever he wants to do whenever he wants to do it when he is at home. Finishing homework after school becomes a debate: "I'll do it later." He says. "You'll do it now so we can relax later." I say. And he must continue to debate the topic until I want to scream. This attitude has poured over into other areas. The other night he kept arguing with me about wanting to eat his dinner in front of the tv after I had already let him play Wii for 2 hours. Sometimes we eat in front of the tv. Most of the time we don't. He was insistent that he get to eat in front of the tv that evening. I finally had enough of it, took away his remaining dinner (he was pretty much done anyway) and sent him to bed because of his argumentative attitude. It was 7:15 pm.
C arrived home not 30 minutes later, heard what had transpired and went up to have a chat with him. He was dead asleep. When I teased him about it the next morning, he said, "Didn't you hear me when you said I had to go to bed last night? I told you 'good because I'm tired anyway'." That didn't really start the day off well.
Last semester I had arranged to have him go to a friend's house after school on Fridays when I was doing my observation in the clinic. It was just one semester. 15 weeks. That semester is over. However, he insists that he still must go to his friend's house every Friday. Every Friday morning there is a debate about it. Every Friday after school there is a debate about it. He also gets off of the bus every night announcing that one of his friends will be coming over to play. I keep telling him that no one comes over to play until I've discussed it with one of their parents. This is followed by statements like, "That's not fair!" "You never let me do anything." And so on.
C is getting the same attitude when he is home alone with the kids. We are both done with it. He had a discussion with O last night about gratitude. He believes O is sort of getting the idea but we really need to drive it home. So, this weekend will be a confirmation of the "you never let me do anything" statement. Besides the already planned activity of racing his Pinewood Derby car for Cub Scouts on Saturday morning, he will not be playing with friends, playing Wii nor will he be eating in front of the tv.
I really hope we all live through the weekend.
