Sometimes it's just so exaughsting to be a mom, isn't it? I've been blessed with two really good kids. No cutting school here. But when Megan's grades started to slip we talked about what had changed. She realized she was staying up too late on the computer. (2 or 3 am!) She also realized that she couldn't get good grades if she did that, so she decided to cut back on her own. Our church has a saying "Teach correct principles and let them guide themselves" My kids know what is expected of them and MOST of the time they do it. When they don't we talk....and we take away priviledges and we try to find a solution together. (No, this is not the Brady Bunch, plenty of yelling and door slamming goes on in the process). My son has a couple of friends I absolutly can not stand. They are brothers, and they are trouble from the get go. When he got into some trouble with them he was told he had lost the priviledge of hanging out with them. But it couldn't stop there, we couldn't just tell him not to hang with them, we had to fill his time with other stuff. He had wanted to join a gym, so we signed him up. He started going there and it helped to meet other people. Every teen is different and they all HATE their parents at times. Kevin just today said "I hate this family" when he did I said "Well, we aren't too thrilled with you either right now" Just keep in mind that someday they will have kids of their own and you get the last laugh. My mother certainly did! |