Saturday, May 9, 2009

Outta Here


About three or four weeks ago Kilian was frustrated when I made him go to his room after he displayed some disrespectful behavior. He thought he should be able to stay in the room with me and plead his case, but I didn't really want to hear it. So, while in his room he came up with a check mark system.

When Brad and I reached a combined total of 50 check marks (for "not being good grown-ups"), Kilian was going to leave us. So over the course of weeks we've accumulated several check marks, sometimes just one or two, but I once "earned" 25 in just one incident. The paper with the checks is usually taped to his door.

Today I "earned" check marks 49 and 50 and he said he was leaving after supper and after we walked the dog. I just asked him lots of questions, like "How are we going to let you know if you have a new brother or a new sister?", and "Aren't you going to be sad that you'll miss the grilled salmon your G-Pa is fixing tomorrow night?".

He went from leaving, to going away for just three days, to deciding that it really wasn't fair for him to give me 25 check marks on that one day. He has decided to remove 20 from our total. WHEW! Lucky us!!

The part I love is that while Kilian was debating what to do, opportunist Lucy looks at me and says, "Mom, I think you are the best parent in the whole world."

1 comments:

Bobbi said...

I Lael, I just started reading your blog and I just can't stop; it's so much fun reading!!! Your kids sound absoluately amazing, I wish I could meet them all and see you in person. Congratulations on your newest member!!!! Miss you!!!