I’m responsible for teaching him responsibility.
This kid is cute, and I love him and all that jazz….. But don’t let his cute little face fool you. He’s clearly got a thing or two to learn about his own responsibilities.
It started when I got a note in his agenda stating that he owes 25 cents on a library late fee (they’ve been in school for a minute… how is this possible?), and that he has a book that’s missing. If we do not find it, the cost of the book is $9.14.
We’ve looked for it. He’s adamant that it’s at school. His teacher is adamant that it’s not. A lot of times, our first reaction is “Why does the teacher not believe him? He said it’s not here. It’s not here.” But even though this is kid 3 of 4 for me….. She’s been teaching for 20 years, and this is probably around kid 583 of 600 for her! This ain’t her first rodeo. My bet…. the teacher is right.
Our conversation went a little something like this on his way out the door this morning:
The Entertainer: I looked. I can’t find it.
Me: Well, I’ll look for it a little bit today.
The Entertainer: If you can’t find it, you have to pay NINE DOLLARS.
Me: Not my book, so not me.
The Entertainer (weepy and over-dramatic at this point): I don’t have any money!
Me: Neither do I!
The Entertainer: YEAH, RIGHT!
Door close.
Of course the bus came shortly after, so I wasn’t really able to talk to him about this, but as I sit here thinking about the more I realize that this isn’t something that needs to just be laughed off.
Even though this is a great lesson for him, ultimately, it is my responsibility to make sure that my child owns up to his responsibilities and becomes an upstanding, non-book-losing member of his 2nd grade society. Tonight, he’ll look for his own book.
I’m really going to have to change his name, though. This year he’s far from “The Entertainer”, but “The-kid-who-gets-my-agenda-signed-at-least-once-a-week” is just too long!
So the question is… Have you ever been in this situation? How did you handle it?
I love that my kids are older and show signs of being responsible. It means I have done something right!
With four kids (the oldest being almost 10) I have gone through this a lot. My kids think that by throwing dramatics they can get away with almost anything and they learned really quick that that got them a time out to think about how they are acting and why. I don’t want to be serious all the time so sometimes I will laugh when they are melodramatic about something, but if it is over something like being responsible, they know that they have to own up to it or pay the consequences. If my daughter lost her book and couldn’t find it and we had to pay a fine she would have extra chores for two weeks to work it off. The punishment needs to fit the crime, but if they do it more than once the punishment doubles and so on. It has worked pretty good around here. Good luck.
Responsibility should be taught starting a young age I think. You can start of with just chores even. Thanks for sharing.
My daughter loses something all the time, and while I feel bad, I try to teach her that that is what happens when you do not put things back where they go and keep your room clean.