Taking Turns...

Thankfully these 2 take turns being in trouble...(and no Ainsley isn't as tall as Walker... she had 3 in. heels on!)

A month ago Walker was really testing our parenting skills! I got a notification of some missing assignments and this lovely grade was recorded in English... an F!!

There was just a couple weeks left in trimester and so we had a huge talk about being responsible... staying on top of assignments and how he was going to fix this problem since he is very capable of getting an A in English etc. He knew he messed up and what had to be done to fix the grade. He had a couple assignments that were finished and just hadn't been turned in.

After our little "heart to heart" parenting talk, he knew the consequences would be no computer time until things were back on track. There wasn't really any arguing about this decision and I thought "Wow... good job us... he's really getting it."

Oh MY HECK... this cute boy one week later... same story different class and this time with added ATTITUDE!! He had assignments due back from December and he just didn't care to do them! (This is where I really get irritated... school will accept any and all assignments up until the trimester is over... with out any sort of % off for lateness!..grr)

Walker Jack has taught me patience... oh my has he taught me patience.  He has taught me to be very level headed when the yucky behaviors come. I wasn't always that way but I have grown and learned through many trials and errors. So the day he says, "I'm not listening to you and ignores you by shutting the door in your face." I about came unglued. It was all I could do to not burst into tears... I took a breath... grabbed a hug from Ainsley and Stewart and went back into battle with the 13 year old. "You will not be disrespectful... you will look at me when I'm talking to you... you will finish these assignments... you will turn them in and you will be grounded with no electronics or friends for one week and if this behavior continues you can kiss your computer goodbye for good... do you hear me?" I also threw in a "I deal with this type of behavior at school... I should not see it from my own child who has been taught better than this."

So the F in the end got replaced with a C... far from the A he is very capable of doing. He did apologize the next day and he's back to giving this Mama hugs. Thankfully in the end they take turns... because a couple weeks later it was Ainsley's turn to test the parenting skills!!