Thursday, May 29, 2014

What do you do when your child plays you and your wife has warned you trust is earned??

I know, its a long title, its a complex problem for me. I'll tell you the story and lets see where it goes...
  Elena gets to play x-box for circle sheets with threes and twos. For all the uninformed a circle sheet grades her daily between 3, the best and zero the worst everyday in every subject in four categories, homework, participation in class, arriving to class on time and behavior in class.
  Yesterday, for the second time in a row she did not bring home her circle sheet. Tuesday I asked her why and what she thought she got on the circle sheet giving her an opportunity to get x-box time she told me she left the sheet in school or something like that and would not venture a guess on how she did. I thought she didn't realize I wanted to give her x-box time, now I think she knew how bad the sheet was and chose not to bring the sheet home.
   Yesterday again no circle sheet and again I ask why and what did she think she got. She pulled the old, well I put it in my backpack and now I can't find it. I used to pull that when Iwas in school. I put it in my desk and I don't know what happened to it so I should have caught this one. I let her play x-box. She played two hours and then I had her come in and help me make eggplant parm. We both worked together, had fun and got dinner ready to put in the oven. Never a word about school.
  We sit down at the table and I hear something from Nastia about detention and Teri is asking Elena to tell her and she is refusing. Nastia tells what happened and it is in a relaxed playful environment so everything and everyone is cool. Elena got four detentions for I don't even remember what at this point. I start cleaning up and realize I am angry and I think it is because only Teri and I had the eggplant parm and the girls didn't even try it. No, it wasn't that. I call Elena down from upstairs and I wait for here in the kitchen. She comes to the door and stands there.
  I tell her, "I am in the kitchen here thinking I'm angry over the fact only your mother and I tried the eggplant, when I'm angry over the fact that you played me. I told her I was hurt because she knew she had detention and had not intention of telling anyone and she played x-box on top of that. I LET HER PLAY X-BOX WITHOUT A CIRCLE SHEET BECAUSE I WANT TO TRUST HER!!!!!! I didn't yell that at her, just at you now. Later after our talk I remember we had a talk about her not staying after school for track and I didn't believe her track is cancelled.
   I felt bad so I called her down and said "I am choosing to believe you that track was cancelled today and I'm sorry that I didn't believe you before."
  Her response was "That's OK, I don't care what people say to me."
  I told her I hoped she would care what I said to her. and she left.
  I remembered that after our talk and wanted to call her down and discuss it with her. Teri said I was dragging it out and should have done it all at once and I shouldn't start it all up again. I let it go, but now I feel very hurt by her and I didn't even want to talk to her this morning. In the car when her music was too loud, I grabbed her phone and turned it down without asking her to. I will get over this, its just right now I feel very hurt by her and it seems she doesn't care because she got what she wanted. I will try to not take my anger out on her in the following days. I've just got to remember, without anger what happened here and to make her earn my trust again and I told Teri I don't think we should reward her for any more good behavior. It has set a bad precedent and I am the most guilty one.
   Where do we go from here I don't know. I guess like parents for thousands of years Teri and I will play it by ear and hope for the best. There is so much good in her.


 
 

3 comments:

  1. Ahh Teenagers...

    E

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  2. She has to earn her trust again and it will be hard. She has got to understand how much damage she has done. It stinks when your own child hurts you that way..

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