PreTeens or, I'm Just Talking to Myself Here . . .

   My son has officially graduated to a pre-teen in deed as well as in age.  He doesn't listen.  Or if he is listening to anything that comes out of my mouth, he doesn't seem to care much about what's being said!

   His grades have been slipping lately.  We dropped his karate lessons for this school quarter to see if he could bring the grades back up.  After school activities are a privilege in our home, not a right!  School comes first.  He came home today with a B, and I made a huge fuss.  For him, a B is a very good grade and shows he is trying hard!  He had lost TV & video game privileges this weekend for lying to me over and over the other day.  My husband told him that he and I would discuss if he might get TV or video games back for at least part of the weekend in view of the B grade he earned.  We made it clear he would NOT have an answer on that tonight, since my husband had to work.

   So no sooner is Dad out the door than he comes to me and tries to wheedle his way into playing a video game.  I told him no, and repeated the above briefly.  About half an hour later, he tried pulling the same thing, and I told him he better not mention it again tonight, and to stop nagging me.  About a half hour after that, we were driving home from a meeting for their sister and I told the boys that they had been good, and that the three of them could use the main TV and watch kids' shows tonight.  (Note I said "watch TV" and definitely did not even mention video games.)  My oldest pipes up and says, "Ha!  That means I'm going to get you in Halo!" to his brother.  That was the final straw.  Before I could say a word, his younger brother answered him, "Mom didn't say we could play video games!  She said we could watch TV!"  (Praise be to Jesus, somebody is listening around here.)  My oldest soon found himself without TV privileges as well, since he wants to focus so much on video games as the be all and end all of his existence.  Grrrrr.

   So this is all over with, moving right along, right?  My oldest starts to whine and wheedle again, this time to watch Goosebumps tomorrow night on TV.  Now, I am not a Goosebumps fan.  I've read some of R.L. Stine's stuff for teens and it's not something I really want my kids to read at that age.  And I don't see any real merit in the books for younger kids.  I told my son that we would have to see what anyone else wants to watch, because Friday night is usually a family TV night where we either all agree on something, or majority vote rules out of the 6 of us (or whoever is home).  He knows that he is the only kid who even likes Goosebumps.  He protested and immediately two of the younger ones started to say how much the books and shows scare them (we've had nightmares before over this series!).  But he just would not drop the subject and pleaded and cajoled like a much younger kid would be doing.  This is about the point where my migraine started . . . .

   My sweet little boy is growing up.  And right now he isn't being too sweet to the rest of us, unfortunately!  Our main focus at this point is trying to teach him to think about how others are feeling, because his mentality has now switched to "me, me, me".  I know it's typical for this age, but I don't have to like it or put up with the attitude!