Today my son had a bit of a meltdown, it's not as unusual as you might think, even if he does look mostly angelic. He just wants to do things his way or no way at all, and doesn't understand that sometimes he is limited by his age and size or by his choices.
So it went like this; he decided to set his Wii character to play bowling left handed, even though he was holding his controller with the right and happens to be mostly right handed except when golfing. The Wii responded accordingly and he was not playing very well...close to the end of the game, he was sulking and I told him he was going to end up grounded if he continued to be rude to his friends and me, and he decided to quit instead. I lost it at this point because he chose to play left handed and now he was hating being last and being told why he was loosing.I told him before the start of the game, you need to change it back to play right handed and he didn't listen.
Anyhow, I know him well enough to know, he does this stuff to get on our nerves (and to make sure if he looses he can blame it on something else), it's done on purpose, he thrives on the negative attention (as a lot of children do) and it's like he wants to make sure that even if he knows he is wrong, he will not listen.
We go off into the kitchen to have a little "talk", I sit on little step stool and look up at him asking what is going on? After a bit of back and forth questions and answers to see if I can get to how he is feeling...he says "Well basically I have 2 choices, I can keep acting like this and get grounded, or you can send me to the classes that teach you to be a better listener [the school send flyers twice a year about courses on teaching kids to get along, about how to deal with bullies, babysitting, first aid etc.], that's my two choices"
I sat there and just stared at him, didn't say anything else yet.
Then he pipes up again with "Actually, I have 3 choices, get grounded, go to a class, or just be a better listener"
"So what do you choose David?" I asked patiently.
"To be a better listener and take advice, and not be selfish" Then as he gave me a hug and he said "The wise choice, is the good choice"
Enough said.
Cheers,
Viviana
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