Mean Mommy
Lukas has incurred the wrath of the evil Mommy Monster, I'm afraid. His new obsessions for all things tech has disrupted alot of things. But nooooo, he isn't the least bit interested in playing games on the computer or going online. This 11 year old wants to experiment with my external hard drives, zip drives, backup programs, and so on. He wants to see if DOS still works or if he can see the Unix programming on my Mac. Hmmm. Problem is, he doesn't respect the time constraints we set for everybody for passive entertainment, so cyberspace becomes a giant black hole that sucks him away from his chores, school work and siblings. He gave me the usual "I know it all alreadxy" when I asked him to study for a big math test and the guy made a 70. This is a guy who shuld be making all A's (not that I care about grades: I don't like them anymore now than I did when I was a kid.) Plus, for the last three days he's forgotten to bring home the books and other materials he needs to do his homework. When I pointed this out, you'd think the kid just won the lottery. Zeroes for incompletes don't faze the guy. So, I removed his computer keyboard and told him he has to prove he can focus more dedication on school and other responsibilities to earn it back. I'm telling ya folks. The guy is just plain lazy! Some of my friends dismiss this claim, saying, "He's not lazy. He's just not inspired. He goes full steam on things that inspire him.) Excuse me, but isn't that just a euphemism for "lazy?" Hell, I'm not exactly inspired to get on my hands and knees to clean the grout with phosporic acid, but I do it. I'm not exactly inspired to put up the crap piles our min pin leaves on my carpets, but I do it. If Lukas is not inspired to do his chores and school work, he's lazy folks. L-A-Z-Y. Period. Anyhoo. This morning things cranked up a notch. I had to tell him 3 times to get out of bed and get ready for school. On the last warning, I told him if he doesn't come down in 2 minutes, I take away the thing that kept him up past his bedtime--his new PDA. He wasn't anywhere near awake by that time so I told him to give me his PDA so I can confiscated for 24 hours, and he refused. i said "You can either give it to me now and it'll just be 24 hours or you can make me take it from you and it can be longer." Grabbing his pocket (where the PDA was obviously concealed- not too well considering the huge rectangular bulge it was making) he said he didn't happen. I tackled him, pinned down his flailing arms and legs and dug that thing out of his pocket. I expect a call from the Patriot's coach any minute. So now he has no PDA until he wakes up without my having to give him more than one wakeup call--three days in a row. Weekends don't count because for some weird reason, the kid pops out of bed at 6:00 AM ready to take on the world and annoy sleeping parents. After this news, he pitched a pretty good fit. So it was time out--then a tardy for getting to school late. He says "Mommy, you're being mean!" to which I responded, "I know, Dear. That's my job." It's hard being an evil mommy but it sure works. Wish me (and Lukas) luck, folks!