Bramell, Party of Five: Am I raising juvenile delinquents?

Friday, October 26, 2012

Am I raising juvenile delinquents?

It's been an interesting couple of weeks at our house. It seems that two-thirds of my children have been causing some trouble at school. There's nothing like getting a note from the teacher to make you feel like you are an incompetent parent.

Offender Number One:  Boy Twin. He is two years old.  He is a BOY.  In taking these two things into consideration, I know that his behavior is probably very normal.  Here's the DL. I got a phone call at work after Lee picked up the littles from daycare. Him: "Boy Twin got a police report sent home today."  Me:  "What?!"  Him:  "Well, it says incident report, but it looks like a police report."  Apparently, our angel-faced boy hit another kid with a SHOVEL....yes, a shovel.  I didn't ask, but I assumed that it was a plastic playground shovel, and tried not to think about the vision of Tony Soprano in my head.

So, how do you talk to a two-year-old about hitting? We sat him down and tried. He nodded and replied, "OK" in all the appropriate places. For punishment, I took away his new fire truck that he'd been playing with.  That certainly  made a point; he was so mad that he tried to hit me with a shovel. (kidding!)

Fast forward a couple of weeks.

Offender Number Two:  Big Sis.  She's five, and has been in a daycare/school setting since she was a toddler. I got an email from her kindergarten teacher.  Big Sis has always had a tendency to latch on to one kid and be "a follower," for lack of a better word.  She has a new friend in class, but now she's trying to keep the other kids from playing with them. Apparently, she's said some mean things to make her point to the other kids. Again, the vision in my head is not good---Lindsey Lohan in Mean Girls, anyone?  Her teacher assured me that she's a sweet girl, she just needs to watch her mouth.  As you know, we've been having this problem at home, too. The mouth! I didn't expect this kind of attitude for at least five more years! Oops.  So, we've talked to her this week. The teacher also talked to her.  I don't want my baby to be a Mean Girl!! We didn't punish her or tell her about the teacher's note.  I gave her a good talking to and a lesson on The Golden Rule....we will see how this turns out. She's a sweet and smart girl;  I don't want her blacklisted from the first grade. Good grief, the drama!


Note:  I am not looking for parenting advice or for anyone to tell me what a crappy parent I am. We are all learning as we go and doing the best we can.

5 comments:

  1. God gave these JDs to you. He chose you and Lee to be their parents. That means you are the best parents for them. You ARE learning as you go and doing the best you can, which I think is pretty darn good! If this is the worst you have to deal with, consider yourself lucky. Believe me, it could be a LOT worse (and may be at some point in the future). For now, just enjoy them and the non-boring life they provide.

    Love to all...
    Grammy

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    1. Everything you said is true, mom. And it very well might get worse!

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  2. Oh goodness...I have stories that could make your toes curl. :) And I am supposed to be an "expert" on kids. I actually had the false sense that I kind of knew what we were doing. Well, in the last few years, I have been humbled big time. It is a learning curve (and I am driving right off of it some days :). You are a precious family with precious kids. We will all get there eventually. I hope. :)

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    1. Lyn, aka MiMi to our two boysOctober 27, 2012 at 12:25 PM

      Rhonda: Unfortunately these little ones don't come with instruction manuals. I shutter to think about the mistakes we made with ours but their one are in jail an both turned out to be responsible adults. You and Lee are great parents and your children will are/and will be awesome!

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    2. Thank you for your patience, I don't know how you do it. Kindergarten is totally wearing me out :D

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