Judge & jury.
OK.
The NOS situation...there have been some late entries on the matter, both debits and credits.
1- He went and manfully apologized to the music teacher. His apology was humble, contrite, entire and sincere. Mr. Music Teacher accepted the apology and even gave NOS the legendary One Last Chance. He can rejoin the choir and even make the recital, but he will not be receiving the coveted lapel pin, nor the certificate suitable for framing.
2- He somehow "had" my cellular phone (which doesn't bother me so much) and forgot to take it out of his pants and it went from hamper to laundry to dryer, dying in the process (which does).
3- He made a charming (if a bit kiss-up) card of apology to TFBIM.
So this is what we have determined for his punishment. The exact duration of the sentence will depend on how long, exactly, he was unexcusedly absent. That's how many weeks this will last...somewhere between 8-10. Keep in mind the issue we're addressing is the deception.
For these __ weeks, NOS has lost ALL privileges.
No television,
No computer games
No video games
No play-dates
No sleep over
No guitar classes (although he will be made to practice) which will resume upon his release
No party and
No movies.
We haven't made a decision on the Disney trip.
He will have a schedule wherein he will have to perform whatever schoolwork, his assigned (to be named later) chores of the day, additional readings and he will have to practice guitar while he is not attending the classes for those X weeks.
Something (tentatively) like this:
3:00pm - Arrive from school. Review and complete homework & assignments & upcoming tests. (These will be verified with the teacher.)
4:00pm - Complete task for the day (take out trash, put out the recycling bin, etc.)
4:30pm - Practice guitar
5:15pm - Shower
6:00pm - Set table for dinner
7:00pm - Dinner
7:45pm - Study for any tests, complete any assignments or perform the day's parentally assigned reading.
9:00pm - Bedtime.
I made it a point of telling him that we love him and the reason for doing this is that he has acted in such a way that has cost him his trustworthiness. (I'm toying with the notion of having a Trust-O-Meter posted up.) His quest is to regain our trust, which for now stands at roughly zero. He is to do so by showing us he is sorry for what he did.
Tomorrow morning we lower the boom.
-J.
The NOS situation...there have been some late entries on the matter, both debits and credits.
1- He went and manfully apologized to the music teacher. His apology was humble, contrite, entire and sincere. Mr. Music Teacher accepted the apology and even gave NOS the legendary One Last Chance. He can rejoin the choir and even make the recital, but he will not be receiving the coveted lapel pin, nor the certificate suitable for framing.
2- He somehow "had" my cellular phone (which doesn't bother me so much) and forgot to take it out of his pants and it went from hamper to laundry to dryer, dying in the process (which does).
3- He made a charming (if a bit kiss-up) card of apology to TFBIM.
So this is what we have determined for his punishment. The exact duration of the sentence will depend on how long, exactly, he was unexcusedly absent. That's how many weeks this will last...somewhere between 8-10. Keep in mind the issue we're addressing is the deception.
For these __ weeks, NOS has lost ALL privileges.
No television,
No computer games
No video games
No play-dates
No sleep over
No guitar classes (although he will be made to practice) which will resume upon his release
No party and
No movies.
We haven't made a decision on the Disney trip.
He will have a schedule wherein he will have to perform whatever schoolwork, his assigned (to be named later) chores of the day, additional readings and he will have to practice guitar while he is not attending the classes for those X weeks.
Something (tentatively) like this:
3:00pm - Arrive from school. Review and complete homework & assignments & upcoming tests. (These will be verified with the teacher.)
4:00pm - Complete task for the day (take out trash, put out the recycling bin, etc.)
4:30pm - Practice guitar
5:15pm - Shower
6:00pm - Set table for dinner
7:00pm - Dinner
7:45pm - Study for any tests, complete any assignments or perform the day's parentally assigned reading.
9:00pm - Bedtime.
I made it a point of telling him that we love him and the reason for doing this is that he has acted in such a way that has cost him his trustworthiness. (I'm toying with the notion of having a Trust-O-Meter posted up.) His quest is to regain our trust, which for now stands at roughly zero. He is to do so by showing us he is sorry for what he did.
Tomorrow morning we lower the boom.
-J.
Comments
On the bright side, good on him for apologising. I think the music teacher had good consequences too.
8-10 weeks is such a long time. Any chance of early release if the trustometer kicks ass?
-J.
As for the Disney trip, I'd forgo it as a family. I'd explain that it wouldn't be fair and TFBYM for you to burden a set of grandparents with the job of taking care of him and keeping him on his schedule, because they probably want to relax and enjoy themselves over Memorial Day weekend. I'd also tell him that and that taking care of him and making sure he stuck to his schedule was part of your parenting job, not theirs.
But then, I was raised by a particularly strict mother. And as a result, I'm cruel. But fair.
That's "wouldn't be fair for you and TFBYM" and there's an extra "and that" in the next sentence.
Damned these glasses. They fog up whenever I think about punishing naughty children.
You are the cruel-but-fairest of them all.
-J.
P.S. I think we may owe YOU a dowry.
-J.