This morning, ds7 and I wrote out his weekly plan (my kids get weekly assignments and then plan out when they’ll do what using this Kid’s weekly planner). He chose to set a heavy workload for himself today since it was raining (he couldn’t go outside) and he wanted to be sure he had enough time to play later in the week when his best neighbor friend is back from vacation.
Then…he played his Hebrew computer game. And colored a page in his brother’s Rosh Hashanah coloring book (with ds4.5’s permission!). And went down to the playroom for a while. And worked on some logic puzzles. And drew some pictures for another brother. And read a book to his baby sister. And then had lunch. And I sat on my hands through all of this – or more realistically, covered my mouth with both of them to keep it shut! This is his choice, and I’m working toward the bigger goal of a responsible kid who can manage his own time and work. Right? RIGHT?!
After lunch, he asked me if he was done for the day. I reminded him to check out his planner and let me know if he has questions. What followed was…well, whining about a heavy workload and wanting to be done (with me thinking “You set the workload! And you’ve been doing everything else this morning!” And a bunch of other things). I reminded him that it is his responsibility to get his work done before noon on Friday, but I’m not involved in which work he does which day. And kept my mouth closed again. Mumbling to himself, he sat down and got to work. And has been working since, getting everything done!
OK, scratch that. As I write this, he got everything but his last line of handwriting before he started teasing his brother, which escalated, and both are taking a temporary break. Oh, well…
The point is, when I sit back and give the responsibility to the child along with the tools to handle it, they do! Giving away the responsibility (and control!) can just be hard on the mommy sometimes. 😉
