#583 adventures of 8GT - rewarding good behavior

I take T to school every morning. We live close enough to his school that he does not qualify to ride the school bus, but we're far enough way that it's a long walk. We made arrangements with our neighbor for T to get a ride to school with them last week when I was gone, since the neighbor kid goes to T's school also.

The first day, Monday, was fine. On Tuesday morning T called me.

T: Hey Mom. I'm going to be late for school.

ME: How come?

T: Spencer's mom is sick.

ME: How is Spencer getting to school?

T: He's not going. I'm going to ride the bus. Will you call the school and tell them I'll be late?

ME: Yes I will.

I called the school and told them the story. They made a note and told me to tell him to check in at the counseling center when he got there.

The rest of the week, T didn't even mess around with getting a ride from the neighbors. He just rode the bus.

Two thoughts on this. First of all, T is awesome, right? His dad leaves for work early, so T had to get up when MT left, get ready for school, eat breakfast and make sure to get out to the bus stop across the street in time to catch the bus. I was really proud of him for doing this. I think it showed a lot of maturity, and I appreciated the fact that he can and will take care of his business when I'm not around.

My second thought is that even when I've been sick, I manage to drag myself out of bed to drive five minutes down the road to get my kid to school. I was kind of bummed out by the way that all went down, but as I said, super-proud of T for being a problem-solving self-starter. (How's that for manager-speak?)

I wanted to reward T for his excellent behavior, so Saturday morning I told him to get up and get ready because I had a surprise for him. He doesn't really like surprises. In a semi-cranky tone, he kept asking me where we were going. I just told him it would be worth his time.

We got in the car and we started driving down the road. When we were pretty far from the house, I told T that we were going to see the new "Twilight" movie. I so, so wish I could have taken a picture of his face. He was ANGRY! He yelled at me, "I DO NOT WANT TO SEE THAT MOVIE! UGH!!" I tried to look surprised and replied, "But you read all the books. I thought you liked them."

"I did read those stupid books a long time ago, but I don't want to see the stupid movie!"

I pulled into the Smith's grocery store parking lot. His fists were all clenched and his eyes were all scrunched up. When I parked the car, I turned to him and said, "I lied. We're just going to Game Stop." He just stared at me, but slowly his eyes un-squinched and his fists un-clenched. "Are you messing with me?" he asked.

"Not now, but I was a few minutes ago," I said. We went into Game Stop and I let him pick out any game he wanted (Modern Warfare 3). Everyone was happy. I got a good laugh out of the whole thing, and T got a game he wanted.

Good times, good times.